Comments on: Romeo, Romeo: The age of consent http://apublicdefender.com/2008/04/27/romeo-romeo-the-age-of-consent/ Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:39:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: tom http://apublicdefender.com/2008/04/27/romeo-romeo-the-age-of-consent/#comment-35962 tom Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:40:12 +0000 http://apublicdefender.com/?p=1170#comment-35962 i have no problem with the us controlling the age of consent in the us but now they want to tell me what i can and can not do in a another country if a 13 yaer old say she had sex with me in spain who looks into this and the spainish police could care less if i had consented to sex with a 13 year old but the us says it is a crime but the us can not start serving warrants and searching hotel rooms or apartments and you can not prove you did not rent em so a 13 year old can no have a field day of extortion cause it is your word against hers and a 13 year old girl cant lie unless $100,000 comes into play who checks her bank records when you say you have an alibi it is worthless cause the us can not confirm it this idea of us law enforced over seas is so so wrong if i spit on the side walk in chicag i could get a $25 fine im ok with that but some 1 says i spit on the sidewalk in new york and i get a $25 fine that is wrong what the us is saying here is that sex with a 16 year is so wrong that the crime can not go unpunished when they enforce us law on us citizens over seas instead of allowing local law proceed and we have no business dictating foreign law and i think they are using this as a precedent and hoping nobody will challenge it cause THE children need to be protected JUST imagine if a doctor had to follow all fda rules and regulations over seas doctor performs emergency heart surgery on a uncouthness patient that is not fda approved but is accepted in that country does he need written consent or does he do what he needs to and forfeit his us citizenship cause he is now a criminal by us stanerds how would this affect business law imagine going to jail cause you worked in a restaurant that served duck liver http://busmovie.typepad.com/ideoblog/2008/05/jurisdictional.html we don't want to allow countrys to enforce their law outside of their boarders other wise we all might be considered criminals by india for consuming beef "MEET FROM THE sacred COWS i have no problem with the us controlling the age of consent in the us but now they want to tell me what i can and can not do in a another country

if a 13 yaer old say she had sex with me in spain who looks into this and the spainish police could care less if i had consented to sex with a 13 year old but the us says it is a crime but the us can not start serving warrants and searching hotel rooms or apartments and you can not prove you did not rent em

so a 13 year old can no have a field day of extortion cause it is your word against hers and a 13 year old girl cant lie unless $100,000 comes into play

who checks her bank records

when you say you have an alibi it is worthless cause the us can not confirm it

this idea of us law enforced over seas is so so wrong

if i spit on the side walk in chicag i could get a $25 fine im ok with that

but some 1 says i spit on the sidewalk in new york and i get a $25 fine

that is wrong

what the us is saying here is that sex with a 16 year is so wrong that the crime can not go unpunished

when they enforce us law on us citizens over seas instead of allowing local law proceed

and we have no business dictating foreign law

and i think they are using this as a precedent and hoping nobody will challenge it cause THE children need to be protected

JUST imagine if a doctor had to follow all fda rules and regulations over seas

doctor performs emergency heart surgery on a uncouthness patient that is not fda approved but is accepted in that country does he need written consent or does he do what he needs to and forfeit his us citizenship cause he is now a criminal by us stanerds

how would this affect business law

imagine going to jail cause you worked in a restaurant that served duck liver

http://busmovie.typepad.com/ideoblog/2008/05/jurisdictional.html

we don’t want to allow countrys to enforce their law outside of their boarders other wise we all might be considered criminals by india for consuming beef “MEET FROM THE sacred COWS

]]> By: Alec http://apublicdefender.com/2008/04/27/romeo-romeo-the-age-of-consent/#comment-27963 Alec Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:55:45 +0000 http://apublicdefender.com/?p=1170#comment-27963 I always thought that MI struck the right balance with 16 general, 18 if with a teacher. And even then at 15 I had a brief relationship with a 19 year-old, a friend of mine had a longer relationship with a 21 year old, etc. Our parents knew about it (eventually) and were furious with us, not the, well, sex offenders. There was no way in hell they were going to report it to the police. After all, at least in my case, I had actively sought the relationship (gay male teenagers are, after all, fundamentally male teenagers in the end, they just have a harder time finding partners if they live in rural areas). On the other hand, while I think any guy who says he does not find (some) sixteen year olds attractive is a liar, I doubt most men (or women) are interested in sexual relationships with teenagers, and at 19 I sure as hell didn't want anything to do with anyone younger than me, and usually not even with men my own age. Legality isn't even the issue; it has more to do with maturity and life experience. Very few teenagers or young adults have enough of either. The really troubling treatment, as you note, is charging teenagers as adults while treating them as kids for purposes of consent (whether it be consent to sex or consent to contract). I agree that there is a problem there. Even intelligent and mature teenagers are people undergoing rapid developmental change, which impacts their ability to genuinely reflect on the consequences of what they are doing. The age of consent laws appear to be designed to isolate adults from teenagers roughly until a major life-changing event: puberty (explaining why none of the consent laws is lower than 12 or 13), driving license and/or eligibility to work (16 in many states), or graduation from high school and subject to adult penal codes (18). I am happy with staggered age of consent laws (14-18 all OK, 15-19 all OK, 16-20 all OK, etc., as one example), coupled with a general age of consent somewhere between 16 and 18. That seems to take into account the reality of young adult life, without providing safe harbor for 30 year olds who want to have sex with 15 year olds. I always thought that MI struck the right balance with 16 general, 18 if with a teacher. And even then at 15 I had a brief relationship with a 19 year-old, a friend of mine had a longer relationship with a 21 year old, etc. Our parents knew about it (eventually) and were furious with us, not the, well, sex offenders. There was no way in hell they were going to report it to the police. After all, at least in my case, I had actively sought the relationship (gay male teenagers are, after all, fundamentally male teenagers in the end, they just have a harder time finding partners if they live in rural areas).

On the other hand, while I think any guy who says he does not find (some) sixteen year olds attractive is a liar, I doubt most men (or women) are interested in sexual relationships with teenagers, and at 19 I sure as hell didn’t want anything to do with anyone younger than me, and usually not even with men my own age. Legality isn’t even the issue; it has more to do with maturity and life experience. Very few teenagers or young adults have enough of either.

The really troubling treatment, as you note, is charging teenagers as adults while treating them as kids for purposes of consent (whether it be consent to sex or consent to contract). I agree that there is a problem there. Even intelligent and mature teenagers are people undergoing rapid developmental change, which impacts their ability to genuinely reflect on the consequences of what they are doing.

The age of consent laws appear to be designed to isolate adults from teenagers roughly until a major life-changing event: puberty (explaining why none of the consent laws is lower than 12 or 13), driving license and/or eligibility to work (16 in many states), or graduation from high school and subject to adult penal codes (18).

I am happy with staggered age of consent laws (14-18 all OK, 15-19 all OK, 16-20 all OK, etc., as one example), coupled with a general age of consent somewhere between 16 and 18. That seems to take into account the reality of young adult life, without providing safe harbor for 30 year olds who want to have sex with 15 year olds.

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