• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Underage teen faces life as registered sex offender for having sex with underage gf

A

AuthenticM

Member
From Injustice Today:

A 14-year-old Houston teenager may be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life after he was charged with having sex with his 12-year-old girlfriend.

The seventh grader, whose name has not been revealed, has been charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child. His girlfriend is in the sixth grade, the Houston Chronicle said.

”He had consensual sex with his little girlfriend and he loved her. They were boyfriend-girlfriend," the teen's mother said.

Texas law has the ”Romeo and Juliet" exception, which means that having sex with a juvenile under the age of consent is not illegal, if you're less than three years older than the person who is under the age of consent.

But that law only applies if both sexual partners are at least 14. If you're 13 or younger, the Romeo and Juliet exception isn't valid.
Click to expand...

But Ira Ellman, a professor at the UC–Berkeley School of Law, told In Justice Today it's not unusual to see 14-year-olds charged as sex offenders and facing life on the sex offender registry.

Some reports, including one from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, have found that the age with the highest number of people arrested for a sex offense is 14, Ellman said.

The Marshall Project recently reported that more than 800,000 people were on sex offender registry lists nationwide.

”And contrary to popular belief, violent serial pedophiles do not fill the ranks of the registered," wrote David Feige, who did the report. ”Rather, a wide swath of sexual thoughts and actions can lead to the lifetime of stigmatization that being on the sex offender registry entails."
Click to expand...
 
H

Hades Hotgun

Banned
I don't think 12 year olds should be having sex, but the legal response should certainly not be the life long branding of another kid.
 
Acerac

Acerac

Banned
WhiskerFrisker said:
I don't understand this. Why on earth hasn't this been looked at and revised. They're both in middle school for goodness sakes.
Click to expand...
Nobody wants to be seen as soft on sex offenders. Logical approaches are worth very little compared to emotional appeal when it comes to this sort of thing.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
This country desperately needs to rethink sexual offense registry. The name itself carries too much stigma and can lock one out of so many things in life even decades after the "crime" occurred.

It's really fucked up that people with aggregated assault charges will have a better life than this kid.
 
L

Lord Fagan

Junior Member
14-year-old knows what it means to be in love...with a 12-year-old?

I hate it when these serious crimes eventually have to apply even to stupid children.
 
J

JigglesBunny

Banned
They shouldn’t be doing it so young but trying to slam a charge on this kid is fucking absurd.

Two underage individuals - not statutory rape.
Two legal individuals - not statutory rape. One of age individual, one underage individual - statuatory rape.

How is this not clear?
 
C

Commanche Raisin Toast

Member
WhiskerFrisker said:
I don't understand this. Why on earth hasn't this been looked at and revised. They're both in middle school for goodness sakes.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I mean if being underage means you aren't mature enough to consent to sex, and thus an adult having "consensual" sex with you is a crime by taking advantage of that naivety, then these two kids are both "incapable" of making that decision, so they should both be considered "victims".

I don't think either of them should be labeled sex offenders and have it on them forever, but at very least there should be a provision for when two underage kids do that where it doesn't follow them forever.

Make it expire when he's an adult or something. For fucks sake.
 
G

Griss

Member
Hades Hotgun said:
I don't think 12 year olds should be having sex, but the legal response should certainly not be the life long branding of another kid.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was typing out.

But circumstances matter here. I mean, technically there could be only 13 months between them, but what if she just turned 12 and he's almost 15? That's very much a predator situation then, if my recollections about those ages are anywhere near accurate. And in that case some form of action or punishment may be appropriate.

But no matter what, life as a registered sex offender for something you do at 14 isn't right.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
WhiskerFrisker said:
I don't understand this. Why on earth hasn't this been looked at and revised. They're both in middle school for goodness sakes.
Click to expand...
It’s probably hard to cape for because you’d be coming into contact with the topic of young people having casual sex. Given the current social climate it probably wouldn’t turn out well.
 
UberTag

UberTag

Member
Any data out there on the racial composition of these 14-year-olds on the life-long sex offender registry?
 
N

n00bsauce87

Member
If you are both a juvenile, consensual sex should not lead you to the sex offender list. Then you'd have to wonder how come the other party isn't charged either with the same offense? Is it because the 12 year old couldn't consent legally?
 
B

Blue Lou

Member
On this audio show , there's a story about a teenager who flashed a girl his own age and was placed on the sex offender list after she told her mother because research suggested that that people in his posiiton may offend in the future.
 
C

calder

Member
I agree that sex-offender registries for teenagers engaged in acts with other teenagers are a flawed, bad idea BUUUUUUT in this case it's not so cut and dried (although to be clear I don't think most things a 14 yr old does should follow them around legally when they are adults).

The difference between 14 and 12 is pretty significant. That's still a teenager (mostly) having sex with a child.


Texas law has the ”Romeo and Juliet" exception, which means that having sex with a juvenile under the age of consent is not illegal, if you're less than three years older than the person who is under the age of consent.

But that law only applies if both sexual partners are at least 14. If you're 13 or younger, the Romeo and Juliet exception isn't valid.
Click to expand...
That's not a terrible exception, honestly. And the fact that it doesn't apply here is a warning flag.
 
A

Ala Alba

Member
JigglesBunny said:
They shouldn’t be doing it so young but trying to slam a charge on this kid is fucking absurd.

Two underage individuals - not statutory rape.
Two legal individuals - not statutory rape. One of age individual, one underage individual - statuatory rape.

How is this not clear?
Click to expand...

n00bsauce87 said:
If you are both a juvenile, consensual sex should not lead you to the sex offender list. Then you'd have to wonder how come the other party isn't charged either with the same offense? Is it because the 12 year old couldn't consent legally?
Click to expand...

I understand the sentiment, but I know you would agree that there should be some cutoff on age difference, particularly when it comes to younger kids.
 
H

Hazmat

Member
Hades Hotgun said:
I don't think 12 year olds should be having sex, but the legal response should certainly not be the life long branding of another kid.
Click to expand...

Yep. If we could have good, age-appropriate sex education we could have explained to him that we understand that he's going to have sex, but a 12 year old girl is just too young.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Statutory laws are in grave need of reform in this country. Eternally penalizing teens for having sex with teens is the stupidest shit ever, especially since if they were to physically assault or even murder someone, they could be released from detention by 18 with a spotless record.
 
I

Izuna

Banned
Okay, 12 is too young. Young enough that parents or guardians involved aren't parenting enough.

I don't think the 14y/o should be on the register, someone needs to do some freaking parenting.
 
K

Krauser Kat

Member
12 is way too young for me to even think about them being emotionally ready.

I also think this is a 12yr olds parents going for blood when they fucked up parenting their kid and want someone to blame.

Community service to the lot of them. Parents too.
 
R

RangerX

Banned
Thats really fucked. My and my first "girlfriend" lost my virginity when we were thirteen. Poor kids life could be ruined.
 
Straight Edge

Straight Edge

Member
per the article:

“Very rarely do the juvenile judges in Harris County force anyone to register. They usually delay it and send them to sex offender treatment and then make a decision.”
 
J

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
JigglesBunny said:
They shouldn’t be doing it so young but trying to slam a charge on this kid is fucking absurd.

Two underage individuals - not statutory rape.
Two legal individuals - not statutory rape. One of age individual, one underage individual - statuatory rape.

How is this not clear?
Click to expand...
.
DemWalls said:
Today's a bizarre day for legal decisions, it seems.
Click to expand...
This too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Bloomberg: Roblox's pedophile problem
2
50
5K
The Infectious Paradox replied
What actually happened to Warren Ellis?
14
3K
CGNoire replied
  • Locked
Doctors on a leading "transgender healthcare body" have admitted that patients have developed cancer + more
2
51
5K
Embearded replied
The Virtues of Ancient Rome
45
2K
Liljagare replied
Ancient Roman figures brought to life via AI
Science 2 3
100
11K
Dirk Benedict replied
Top Bottom