If my son began dating a 16 year old at the age of 20 I would damn near disown him. If my daughter was “fondled” by someone 4 years older than her while she was a MINOR then I would go straight to the police.
If you have an issue with the age of consent laws then why don’t you let us know NAMBLA’s position? At what age do you feel a child attains the ability to grant consent for sexual activity?
Obviously your on record that 16 is old enough. How low does it go in your mind? 15, 14, 12?
I see that you feel strongly about the insanity of NAMBLA and its philosophy of lowering or removing the age of consent laws. I can see that you are very passionate about this. Sometimes passion for something can cloud our judgment about other issues that seem to resemble the ones we are adamantly opposed to.
I don’t believe I have said anything that would reasonably give someone else reason to think I approved of anything remotely related to NAMBLA’s position about adults having sex with children. This could not be further from my mind, in my experience on both sides of the issue, with regard to child sexual abuse of any kind. It is the ultimate violation of the human soul, for an adult to act out sexually, or have any physical contact with a child of any kind that could even be interpreted as sexual in nature. I do not disagree whatsoever with the “age of consent” as it stands currently.
What I absolutely DO have issue with, is defining the legal charges of sexual activity or behavior of a legal adult with a legal minor, when that relationship has some perception of consent. I also know that our society is out of control with its over reaction to, and it’s lack of applying personal responsibility to the behavior of persons old enough to participate in sexual activity, even if one party is technically “under age” (i.e. 15, 16 or 17 year old girl or boy). The consequences and punishment for these clear violations of the laws SHOULD FIT THE CRIME. They currently do NOT, and this is escalating rapidly across this country.
As a parent myself of four precious children over whom I am fiercely protective, I would hope that the law would deal with a boy in a reasonable and responsible way, if I would be the one to drag him by his neck into the police station, after catching him (as a 20 year old) kissing my teenage daughter. But once I cross that line and make that accusation, that boy’s life and his family’s lives would be destroyed forever, because of the way our laws currently are written and implemented. As much as my emotional response as a parent can absolutely be justified on its face, I do not believe that behavior for which I personally would want him to pay a high price for, should include many years of incarceration, and a lifetime of being branded a sexual offender, no matter what I might personally feel.
I am teaching my girls as well as my boys about personal responsibility for every action they take — every choice they make. My boys are not going to be held to a different or higher standard than my girls. The laws NEED to make room for and take into consideration these very common circumstances as I have described her in this long answer to your question. They currently do NOT. They currently would suck this young man into the abyss of a prison system that would remove any chance he had of understanding the gravity of his crime against my daughter, or of taking any responsibility for or having remorse for what he did, because of the rage and humiliation he would experience, due to the over-sentencing he would surely receive, because of the disproportionate guidelines in the criminal justice system.
My hope and prayer is that this message gets out to enough of the public over time, so that the legislators who are drafting and voting on these laws will look beyond the political climate and party lines, to see the reality of how broken our justice system truly is for sex offenders across the board.
Hope I helped you a little bit with your question.