These statistics deny that a great number of older men are taking advantage of young girls and making them pregnant. Eight per cent is hardly an epidemic. If the problem is occurring only 8% of the time, then statutory rape laws should be enforced in about 8% of the cases. The problem is how to sift through all the cases and find the right ones to prosecute, leaving the remaining 92% alone. It "...has proven far more difficult than the politicians ever imagined" (Elton, 1997, p. 13). To expect prosecutors to find the 8% in order to reduce the welfare rolls is impractical and unreasonable. Moreover, enforcement of these laws frequently has unexpected consequences. For example, 19-year-old Kevin Gillson was charged in Wisconsin with sexual assault for getting his 15-year-old girlfriend pregnant. His name was entered in a national registry of sex offenders even though he planned to marry the girl and raise his child (Elton, 1997). In some cases, the courts have found that even a very young girl might be better off married to an older male: "In Orange County, California, social service workers and a juvenile court even recommended a pregnant 13-year-old marry her 20-year-old boyfriend because it provided more stability...
13). The "older men" are not always predators. Worse, the girls these laws are supposed to protect, may avoid prenatal care so as not to get the fathers in trouble.
Conclusion Statutory rape is one of the more difficult subjects in criminal justice. Every actor in the law enforcement community wants to strike a balance between ensuring that a victim is adequately protected and imposing realistic punishments that are proportionate to the level of the crime. To help ensure this, many states have lowered punishments when offenders are under the age of 21 with victims over a certain age limit. That
Police In this scenario of what may be an instance of domestic violence, the officer has the option of simply talking to the couple, determining what is wrong and issuing a warning-or pressing charges against both or one of the participants for disorderly conduct. The police officer can simply use his or her presence to influence the couple's behavior or can use the actual weight of the law. The officer will
When the public is notified of a sexual offender moving into a neighborhood, they are often ostracized, which may exacerbate their problems and increase their risk of reoffense. "Rejection by the community may lead people to despair of ever living a normal life, and such hopelessness can undermine attempts to conform to community standards, driving people inwards, where they may dwell on increasingly inappropriate fantasies" (Lotke, 1997). This clearly
The precedence set by this attorney, though it was not answered by a maelstrom of other counties resurrecting rarely if ever used common laws, does prove interesting, on the issue of rape as well as many other laws that are hardly if ever used but not stricken from the books, as of yet. Though Idaho is no longer considered a "common-law" state with regard to domestic situations, i.e. regarding the
Moreover, the television show uses the same tactics that law enforcement does when they want to catch sexual predators online. Both law enforcement and the staff of "To Catch a Predator" pretend to be young people. By playing the same game as the sexual predator, police are effectively capturing criminals before they get away with their crimes. Although sneaky, the method of luring sexual predators using their own game is
Government The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act Final Project / Dissertation Degree: Juris Doctorate Specialized Major: Specialization: Constitutional Law Full Address: The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act This paper reviews the rights and protection that a state and federal government official provides to citizens that have been the subject of human trafficking crimes. Citizens need the protection of the police and other law enforcement officials to report human trafficking crimes and to protect and assist those that need
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