Originally posted by spalind:
its a law thing...We had a bunch of boys up here in MA getting booted out of school and brought up on rape charges for having oral sex with an underage girl--even though she told the police she was a willing participant and brought up the idea herself--because she is under the age of consent and is not considered able to make those decisions for herself while the boys WERE of age of consent and should have known better...Too F'ing bad...rot in jail you loser...
Just to point out a small problem with your example, and a reson why this can be seen as an unfair issue (not exactly sure on the GA law).
I know of 2 kids who were arrested at the age of 15 with the crime of Statutory rape - for having sex with each other.
You see, the MA law on Statutory rape (underaged sex) does not concern itself with the age of the accused, only the age of the "victim."
Now the really interesting part is the charges against the girl were dropped within a few days, and she was sent off to a program for troubled youth.
The boy, on the other hand, went to trial and was convicted, although he shortly later had the conviction overturned on appeal.
They both broke the letter of the law, so why should the two kids have been treated differently?
BTW the GA law on Statutory rape:
From the CYCC in GA Per OCGA 16-6-3)
In Georgia, you can go to jail for having sex! The law states:
If you have sexual intercourse with any person under the age of 16 years, you will have committed statutory rape.
A person 21 years of age or older convicted of statutory rape shall be imprisoned for a minimum of ten and up to 20 years.
A person age 17-20 convicted of statutory rape shall be imprisoned for one to 20 years.
If the victim is 14 or 15 years of age and the person convicted is no more than three years older than the victim, the person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
It does not matter if you are male or female.
It does not matter if you are unaware of the victim's age.
It does not matter if the sex is consensual.
And the law under which Genarlow Wilson was convicted appears to be the following (the law has been upadted since then):
Found here... 16-6-4
GCA § 26-2019: Child molestation; aggravated child molestation
"A person commits the offense of child molestation when he or she does any immoral indecent act to or in the presence of or with any child under the age of 16 years with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of either the child or the person…. "A person commits the offense of aggravated child molestation when such person commits an offense of child molestation which act physically injures the child or involves an act of sodomy"
Notice this law does not specify the age of the person committing the act - thus a 15 year old could have be charged and convicted with the same crime Genarlow wilson has been. (that is no longer the case since the law has since been modifed, although not retroactively as the article points out)
Does that make sense, even though the 15 year would would have also broken the law?
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