Reply #87: 14 year olds can legally have sex in many states

[seventhson]

as long as it is with someone close to their own age.

As a Juvenile Law Attorney in the past I have seen 13 year old mothers and mothers (and fathers) who wer every young and engaged in consensual relationships with much older persons (which IS illegal). But the judgment of the law is that sex between young teens the same age (where I practiced it meant they had to be within two years of each other and over the age of thirteen) MAY be grounds for legal action to protect them but it is NOT considered a crime or delinquent offense.

It only BECOMES a delinquent offense if they are actually charged with being "out of control" and ordered NOT to engage in sexual relationships and then disaobey the court order. If they violate the court order THAT becomes the "crime" (not the act in itself).

As such, the law pretty much says that at 14 sex is okay. It is not a juvenile offense. But having sex with someone MORE than two years your junior IS illegal (so a sixteen year old can be charged with a crime for having sex with someone two years and one day younger but NOT someone two years younger). One day makes the difference between crime and acceptance in the law. So if a fifteen year old has sex with a 17 year old it all depends on their birthdays whether it is criminal for the older teen.

What I am getting at is that 13 year olds DO have sex. It is NOT always nonconcensual and is not always traumatic and awful.

Our society imposes a moral code that says it is okay to have sex (more or less) with someone close to your age when you are 14 or 16 or 18 but NOT if THEY are much older or younger than you.

My feeling is that it was inapprapriate, illegal and POSSIBLY immoral, but NOT awful and possibly not all that traumatic. At the age of 13 most boys I know would have given a limb to get laid by an older sexy female and been happy as clams about it for the rest of their lives. Some girls I have worked with felt prety much the same.

Basically - it is THEIR business and NOT really ours.

Yes the law was broken, but in many cultures such relationships are not considered bad , wrong or illegal.

We come from the Puritan Victarian witch-hunters who judged EVERYBODY and prefer the Scarlet letters to brand people for life.

I personally think THAT is perverted and demented.

Let these adults be.