Just wanted to clarify: I do by and large agree with what you say on the statutory rape issue, though I do have some friends who at sixteen or so were involved with people considerably older (say, 35) and count those as good, healthy experiences. It *really* depends on the sixteen-year-old though, and from all I know that's damn rare. In this particular case that PP didn't report, though, the guy was 17. I do not see this as a major problem in terms of capacity to consent.
It sort of reminds me though of this fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl, I forget her exact age, who got married (in some state where young marriage was legal) to a man who was ten years older than she, but who was not-quite-mildly-retarded and who clearly presented, to everyone who knew him, as being significantly younger than he was. I suppose articles paint people the way they want to, but from the quotes from him and stuff, he did sound younger than his age, and he sounded genuinely sweet and genuinely confused about all this fuss, because he didn't see the age thing as an issue. Nor did his wife. The funny part is that I don't really see a sexual relationship in those circumstances to be particularly problematic, but I do see marriage between two people who both essentially have a mental age of fifteen as a possible mistake! But I think about that a lot in thinking about statutory rape laws. My brain is always niggling "by and large, yeah, the power disparity goes along with the age disparity, but then there's those cases that don't fit the mold..."
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Random, lengthy soapbox, because I was charitable and left it out of the initial post
Date: 2008-01-30 05:51 am (UTC)It sort of reminds me though of this fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl, I forget her exact age, who got married (in some state where young marriage was legal) to a man who was ten years older than she, but who was not-quite-mildly-retarded and who clearly presented, to everyone who knew him, as being significantly younger than he was. I suppose articles paint people the way they want to, but from the quotes from him and stuff, he did sound younger than his age, and he sounded genuinely sweet and genuinely confused about all this fuss, because he didn't see the age thing as an issue. Nor did his wife. The funny part is that I don't really see a sexual relationship in those circumstances to be particularly problematic, but I do see marriage between two people who both essentially have a mental age of fifteen as a possible mistake! But I think about that a lot in thinking about statutory rape laws. My brain is always niggling "by and large, yeah, the power disparity goes along with the age disparity, but then there's those cases that don't fit the mold..."