Statutory Rape

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The statutory rape law states that having sexual intercourse or being involved sexually in any form with a child below the age of sixteen is unlawful and could have charges pressed against as well as face imprisonment in a state prison or correctional facility. The law also states that one gender isn’t recognized more than the other; under the law children should be protected equally. Statutory rape is sex that occurs between an adult and a minor; an adult eighteen years or older and a minor is considered sixteen years or younger. The underlying principle behind the statutory rape law is the fact that children below the age of sixteen are incapable of giving their consent on sexual activities. Although the law states that all children are treated equally under the law, in several cases the court has chosen one gender over the other and the majority of the time the boys are the one who is faced with charges rather than girls (Oberman, 1994)
There are far more males serving for statutory rape within prisons than females. There are hardly any females reported being charged with statutory rape or being sued for the same crime. The law does state that males and females have the same punishment for statutory rape (Christopher, 2012). However, in many cases young boys do not report the crime because they look at it as an act of becoming a man to have sexual relations with not only young girls but older women as well. There are several cases in which young boys are charged with the crime of statutory rape even when all parties are involved and gave their consent. For example in one case, a fourteen year old boy was charged with statutory rape for being involved in sexual activities with three girls who were younger than the boy, two of th...

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...t comes to sex between two children below the age of sixteen, boys are the one charged with statutory rape.
In 1995 a study was conducted to see how many teenagers were sexually active or had been involved sexually in any way. The study revealed that, by the age of sixteen, 50% of teenagers in the U.S have had been involved in sexual intercourse (Oberman, 1994). There was another study that was conducted statewide surveying young girls from 8th grade to 12th grade. The survey asked about what age was the young girls when they first had sex and the age of their sexual partners. The survey excluded intercourse that was by force. Girls who were between the ages thirteen to eighteen did not have a partner that was much older than them. However younger girls between the ages of eleven to twelve said that their partners were five or more years older (Leitenberg, 2000).

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