The age of 15 used to be a fairly normal time in all cultures for getting married or engaged; a woman was considered a potential old maid in England if she made it to 18 without being married or engaged, and if she hit 21 she was definitely an old maid. In the past, most states in fact permitted marriage for girls after the age of 14 with the consent of their parents. That is, they permitted marriage, not sexual abuse. Obviously, customs have changed, but early marriage is not in the realm of sexual abuse.
However, the problem with the mentally ill or the developmentally disabled is that they are very easily victimized because the law simply says, oh, it was voluntary. I worked in a group home and there were some local people who thought it was very amusing to stop one of the residents on his way back from the sheltered workshop and give him a quarter to masturbate in front of them. But it was “voluntary,” right? And they were technically adults, so the law didn’t care about this humiliation.
In this case, I don’t know why they’re not being a little more energetic in their response. Victimization at group homes is a constant problem.
“The age of 15 used to be a fairly normal time in all cultures for getting married “
Slavery used to be legal as was child labor.
Actually, most working-class women in England, which means most women, married in their mid to late twenties, after they and their prospective husbands had saved up enough money to establish themselves.
In America, where there was open land, an early age of marriage was far more common. When land ran out, as in 19th c. Massachusetts, the age of marriage went up again.
And why I’m tangenting off on this I don’t know. If the boys were developmentally five, well, five year olds play doctor.
There are some group homes for adults I’ve been to as an EMT, staffed entirely by Caribbean immigrants because it’s low wage work. Our society isn’t willing to pay much to care for the mentally disabled but I do believe that institutions of a modest size would be better than isolated group homes.
“I worked in a group home and there were some local people who thought it was very amusing to stop one of the residents on his way back from the sheltered workshop and give him a quarter to masturbate in front of them.”
Where do you live? There are some pretty sick “locals” in your neck of the woods.
I just can’t imagine. Maybe my mind just doesn’t work that way. What? You just say “Hey Bubba, here’s a quarter. How’s about pulling your pee-pee out and choking the chicken for just a bit?”
Sounds like there are a whole bunch of “locals” that need to be in a group home. Or shot.