http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/25/should-teens-be-jailed-for-sex-offenses-a-growing-parental-rebellion-says-no.html
My rant started with the above article...please read. I think I would have to agree with this group of mothers fighting the laws regarding "sex crimes." It seems that there is this magic age out there for when teens should or should not have sex. Like many things in life, it is not a "black and white" situation.
Once these things make it to a court of law, it becomes a "win the game" situation for lawyers and prosecutors. Let's face it, these people make their livings off winning records.
I work with teens and have a teenage son of my own, and I teach him the law, but does this mean he will not have sex with a fifteen year old when he is seventeen? As much as I would like to hope...nope. How many parents ages 30 and up broke these laws themselves "back in the day?" These laws were not in place then, so it did not matter, but you can be sure that some of the same people prosecuting these kids had sex that would today be punishable by law.
There seems to be very little logic in today's world. There is a high number of people who fall into the category of what I would call "bandwagon mentality." All it takes is one public case and then a gazillion more follow. These are teenagers, whether they are fourteen or eighteen. They go to school together. They are friends. No matter how much preaching we do as parents and educators, let us not forget that hormones play a huge role in teens lives. We need to teach them right and wrong, but many laws take it to the extreme and judges use zero logic when it comes to sentencing these teens.
