Excessive punishment for sex act?

[Marie]

Originally posted by James
Is there that much of a difference in a 30 year old getting oral sex froma 15 year old girl and a 17 year old? Enough of a difference for 10 years in jail?

Oral sex is a voluntary act.

Or did she understand what she was doing when it was the 17 year old boy, but would not understand why a penis was in her mouth if the person was older . . . at some magical cut off age?

We have to really becareful when we legislate social issues.

The legal excuse for a lot of these laws is to prevent teen pregnancy. If they really wanted to do that they would have to charge the underage girl for having sex.

I don't agree with that either.

From my understanding, this young man was charged with something similar to child molestation. Since he has been convicted, then not only is he going to spend the next 10 years in jail, but he also must register as a convicted sex criminal for the rest of his life. However, I believe that the argument being made here is that in many states this law has a caveat that excludes teenages who are together engaging in a consensual relationship. This is what the young man's lawyer is pushing to have put into place in order to have his sentence overturned.

If this is the case, then this is not quite the same as the laws designed to prevent teenage pregnancy. Additionally, it must be noted that the ability of a 30 yr old to manipulate a 15 yr old into doing something inappropriate is a bit different than that of a 17yr old. No there isn't a magical cut-off that we can identify to prevent mis-applications of the law such as this one. However, a loop hole such as the one that they are requesting would help cut down on some of the ambiguity.