Sex offenders in youth sports

[Lozza]

I must chime in on this just because of my personal story. My mom had me when she was 16, my dad was 22. They got married and had my 2 sisters by the time mom was 19. It's frightening to me that if this had happened today my father might have had a record and perhaps been put in jail instead of marrying my mom and creating my 2 sisters.

My parents have a similar story, age wise. My mum was 16 when she met my 21 year old dad. Now knowing both my parents I can assure you my mum was the more mature of the two, but the age difference does creep me out a bit for the age they met. My grandmother admitted to me a couple of years ago they were incredibly worried when they first started dating but they met my dad very, very early in the relationship and he came part of the family. (my mum had me at 22)

I have a feeling that here when statutory rape comes to the matter of the police, that the age of the older victim is taken into account. (and remember age of consent here is 16) So a 16/17/18 year old acussed of statutory rape with his 15 year old girlfriend will be looked at very differently than a 22 year old with the same girlfriend. I know for a lot of people a man (because invetiably it's always younger girlfriend) who is out of high school who starts dating a high school student will be looked at oddly. We had a very disturbing relationship when I was in Year 12 (17/18) where a Year 11 student was dating a friend of his sisters. His sister was in Year 6 (so we're talking about a 16/17 year old boy dating a girl who was at most 12)

The problem is with the law that once a conviction has been made it's difficult to have a discretion based decision on whether they're sex offenders or not.

 

[MTR]

The problem is with the law that once a conviction has been made it's difficult to have a discretion based decision on whether they're sex offenders or not.

Another problem with these laws, and quite a few other laws in the US, is that it has been enacted for political and social purposes with zero intellect applied. It is a lot like an umpire in a ball game. The umpire either ejects you or ignores a particular action, no middle ground like you have in other sports (penalty in football, tech foul in basketball, etc.).

I've had lawyers (acquaintances) complain their only options allowed are to drop the charges or move forward knowing full well that the minimum punishment will be overkill. And they also have to deal with the political and social pressure brought to bear. Many know how to manipulate the system to avoid an atrocity, but apparently some just take the easy path which doesn't always seem to be a fair path.