The KEY thing to remember about statutory rape is that it is a strict liability crime. What that means is that if the state can prove that the act occured, that's it. It doesn't matter if the older person "thought" the other was old enough, it doesn't matter if one or the other lies, it doesn't matter if one or the other took "reasonable care" or even "extra special care" in trying to determine if they are the proper age or not. None of that matters, not at all. If the sex happened, a crime happened, period.
Girls should be held to the same standards of guy's.
They are. Statutory rape laws are not gender-specific. If an older woman has sex with an underage man, it's statutory rape.
She is just as responsible as the guy.
No, she's not, at least not according to the state. In enacting statutory rape laws, the state determined that people below the age of consent are INCAPABLE of giving legal consent, and therefore are NOT responsible. The state has decided that protecting underage children is more important than the rights of adults to have sex.
You'll have to stick it out until she turns 18. Don't have any contact with her or her friends. Cut it off, like coyote arm. Besides what proof does she have against you? Did you have sex with her freinds watching? (that would be cool).
This is irrelevant. He could "sitck it out" until she was 50, and that wouldn't change the fact that a crime had been comitted.
but personally I don't think her case sounds very compelling, considering that she's choosing to hold the threat of prosecution over your head rather than just reporting you.
None of that matters. Her "case" (actually the prosecuter's case) is simply to prove that sex occured with him while she was underage. That's all she has to prove. Doesn't have to prove intent, reasonableness, mistake, none of that. Only that it happened.
Because most of the time these girls consent to the sex.
If they are underage, it may APPEAR that they have consented, but legally they can't consent. Period. That's why it's called "age of consent."
And my response to the last responce is if she consented to it how is just his fault????????
See above.
Now, before anyone gets all upset over my post, I tend to agree with you. I was in the military myslef, and I saw what happens around military bases, all of these young guys, with some money and freedom, living away from home for the first time, and so on. But the FACT is that the LAW states that statutory rape is a strict liability crime -- you only have to prove that it happened. Anything else is irrelevant. If you disagree with the law, work to change it -- but there is NO defense other than proving it didn't happen. The only way to protect yourself is to keep it zipped up until and unless you can unequivocally verify that she is old enough to consent.