Statutory rape?

Question

I'm doing a paper on rape and I feel that statutory rape is the most important type of rape to be tried in court, but I'm not saying that other types of rape aren't as important.

I was just wondering HOW these child rapists find their victims and what are ways to prevent this from happening to your child or yourself. What are the signs that a minor has been raped? Why do rapists do it?

And if you would, please add some web addresses to any statistics you know as of what gender the child rapists are and such. Thanks =]

You're completely right. I did state it wrong. I understand what statutory rape is. I was just focusing more on children who are sexually abused. I do understand that even a minor can commit statutory rape. I apologize.

In the US. All I really need to know is what are signs that someone is a victim of statutory rape? How can you prevent this from happening to a minor?

Answer 1

"TG's" comments are good.

You do not say which country you are referring to, as the legal age of consent varies from country to country, and even in the US it varies between states. I Hawaii it is 14 while in others it can be 16 or 18. In Canada it is 14.

I do not know the law on Statuary Rape in the US, but in Australia if two minors have consensual sex and the age gap is less than 18 months, then no-one can be charged. If an adult has consensual sex with a minor then it is statuary rape and the adult would be charged, no matter what the gender of the adult or the type of sex.

Someone else was talking about someone being drugged then raped, often this is called "date-rape", the same as if your boyfriend or "date" rapes you.

Answer 2

You have a bit of a misunderstanding of what statutory rape is. In statutory rape, there is no force or coercion. The sex is consensual. It is considered rape because the girl is below the age where she can legally give consent. In most cases the prosecution is against the will of the girl, who is very often in a committed relationship with the "rapist." Ironically, in most states, it doesn't even matter how old the boy is. 14 year old boys have been convicted of "raping" 15 year old girls, because the law says she can't legally give her consent and his age is irrelevant.

I don't mean at all to trivialize rape, which is a serious and horrible crime. But this is a special case which needs to be clearly understood.

Answer 3

Just remember that statutory rape is not always committed through acts of force. It occurs whenever any individual 18 or older has sexual relations with someone under 18. What I mean is that it could have been a 19 year old having a sexual relationship with a 16 year old. By this relationship I mean that they were dating. I don't personally see anything wrong with this. It's the rape done by methods of coercion that I am more concerned with. Basically, this type of sexual intercourse would be legal if it wasn't for the ages. Check out the websites for more on what I mean. You may want to consider changing your papers topic to "forceful rape" because based on your question it seems you may be more interested in that. Check out the websites listed below.

Answer 4

You need to define your issue a little better. Using the term "child rapists" when discussing statutory rape is a little misleading and inflammatory. When looking at your data you need to keep a careful eye on the age differences you're seeing. A 19-year-old who's arrested for sleeping with his 17-year old girlfriend is a very different issue than a 40-year-old who somehow has sex with a 14-year-old.

Answer 5

Rape is sex without consent.

There are three ways someone can not have consented.

First -- they can have been forced.
Second -- they can have been drugged, or drunk, or asleep, and thus not be aware of what was happening.
Third -- they may be too young to legally give consent.

Remember that for statutory rape you're talking about two very different types of situations -- child abuse and molestation where the child is really too young to know what's going on -- and situations where the child really did consent, but the govt determined that they are below some statutory age.

Answer 6

hate to break it to you but i met my future husband when i was still in high school, he's 8 years older then I am, do the math. Don't be so quick to judge. we have a house and are getting married next November on our 5 year anniversary.

Im marrying someone young compared to two of my best friends who are happily married to men 10 and 13 years older.

I know there are real sickos out there but there should be a difference between trying sick pedophiles and parents being pised they're loosing their little girls and thats what most statutory rape cases are.

Answer 7

I stay in Florida and don't have confidence there's a hindrance Florida Stat. Ann. §775.15 No statute of barriers for intercourse battery if sufferer mentioned the offense interior of 72 hours. Florida S 698 (2001) Tolls the statute of hindrance until a sufferer of a sexual offense reaches age 18 whilst the sufferer is a minor, or until they record it to government, whichever happens first.