Should teens be locked up or registered as sex offenders for having safe and consensual sex with one another? A prosecutor by the name of Kym Worthy from Wayne County, Michigan doesn't think so, and is proposing that the age of consent law be changed to protect teenagers from "unnecessary prosecution." I saw this posted over on Moral Outrage today, the full story can be found here.
All it takes is one overzealous prosecutor to change a kid's fortunes forever.Perhaps they ought to start thinking of doing something like this in Utah, where it may take a supreme court decision to come down on whether two teens having consensual sex was in fact an act of mutual statutory rape. According to the editorial, Michigan has one of the strictest "black and white" status crime laws when it comes to teenage sex. Young people need protections against rape and assault just as anyone does, but not to the extent that they can be jailed and put on sex offender registries for doing it consensually with one another.
Sex among minors is not ideal, but it happens. Michigan would be wise to carve out an exception for teenagers or give judges more discretion in dealing with this issue.
Parents there would do well to write Kym Worthy and let her hear your voice on this issue.
http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeletehttp://sexoffenderstudies.blogspot.com/
No offense intended to victims and their families of violent sexual assaults, but the “statutory” laws in all states are insane and DA’s are relentlessly prosecuting young kids/teens and young men with laws enacted to protect our kids and teens.
ReplyDeleteI am not condoning pre-teen and teenage sexual promiscuity, but think back to when you were kids/teens and you played games such as truth-or-dare, doctor, seven-minutes-in-heaven, spin the bottle, or went 'parking'.
What was once 'petting' sexual exploration between consenting underage teens is now grounds for “life time registration as a sex offender” and it is the boy who always ends up being charged.
Statistically under today's sex offender laws, over 95% of all youth could be convicted and registered as sex offenders for life!
How many of our young boys and teens will we allow to be incarcerated, subjected to barbaric and abusive treatment (see Plethysmographs, Masturbatory Satiation, Arousal Reconditioning, Cognitive Restructuring of juveniles) and then forced to register as Sex Offenders for the rest of their lives before we bring an end to this insanity?
The current and potential legislation regarding this entire subject is seriously lacking any real protection of our children from violent predatory sex offenders. In fact more and more underage children are the ones who are being prosecuted and convicted at an alarming rate under the very laws enacted to 'protect them.'