[Drew68]

One thing bothers me though, if the sexes were reversed do you think a man would have gotten off with only 9 months of jail time?

Absolutely not because it just isn't the same crime. We like to delude ourselves into believing that males and females are completely equal in every measure but this simply isn't so.

An adult male having sex with a 13 year-old girl is committing a more serious crime than an adult female having sex with a 13 year-old boy. It may be the same crime on the books but in the perception of many, it is apples and oranges.

[najida]

But there can and IS psychological damage. Boys are more immature emotionally that females to start with.

Even more so because, well "Hey bucko! You got some!" So he's even more isolated that if it was female (who could scream rape and get all kinds of sympathy) What has happened is someone in a 'parental' or authority role violated a trust, and crossed a boundary that shouldn't have been crossed.

Every male I've ever dealt with that had something like this happen, wishes it hadn't.

[blaquebyrd]

"It may be the same crime on the books but in the perception of many, it is apples and oranges."

Precisely why I posed the questions. Michael Jackson faced a minimum 24 years if convicted of the same crime this teacher will server only 9 months for. So you are correct sex and looks do make a difference when it comes to child molestation in America.