Statutory rape

The term "statutory rape" is sometimes used when national and/or regional governments, citing an interest in protecting minors, consider people under a certain age to be unable to give consent, and therefore consider sexual contact with them to be equivalent to rape regardless of the minor's consent.

Statutory rape laws as social conditioning

As noted above, it is not wholly inconceivable that even a young teenager, if only an exceptionally mature one, be able to make mature and responsible decisions regarding sex. Parents who perceive their children as possessing sexual maturity at a young age generally expect that these children understand the consequences of sexual intercourse with an older person; namely the grave legal trouble said older persons face as a result of statutory rape laws. Children who feel they are mature enough to engage in sexual activities, especially with older persons, are therefore expected to prove their maturity by abstaining from such activities. In this way, statutory rape laws serve a dual purpose ? protecting minors that lack the maturity to make wise choices regarding sex while at the same time encouraging minors to show greater maturity and responsibility by exercising restraint and control over their biological urges rather than letting their biological urges control their decisions. The intended result, at least in theory, is that this restraint and abstinence breeds children who have more sexual maturity by the time they reach the age of consent than they might otherwise have had.

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Opposing views

This view is however by no means universal, as there are many people who feel that such sexual repression actually equates to sexual immaturity. Such individuals argue that sexual maturity is the result of the elimination of sexual inhibitions, and provide the strongest voices against the very concept of statutory rape. Obversely, those who regard sexual inhibitions as sexual immaturity and the lack of them as sexual maturity are often accused themselves of being sexually immature for not having developed proper restraint.

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Predictably, these larger issues of sexual morality and debate between the sexually conservative and sexually liberal are inexorably linked to the issue of statutory rape, with the most conservative proclaiming that any sex at all outside of certain pre-determined situations such as marriage be treated as immoral and/or criminal, and the most liberal desiring that the mere enjoyment of physical stimulation on any sexual or emotional level be the sole criterion of consent. While most people would not support either of these extremes, vocal minorities on either side of the spectrum have led to stereotyping, pigeon-holing, and straw man fighting engaged in by those leaning nearer the other, causing the issue of statutory rape to grow even more emotionally charged over time. Thus making discussion of the issue itself, like most issues dealing with questions of sexual morality and/or responsibility, something of a taboo.

Related Topics:
Sexual morality - Marriage - Stereotyping - Pigeon-holing - Straw man - Taboo

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