This "age of consent" argument is a joke. If I had to guess why the age of consent is what it is, it probably has more to do with preventing one half of a young couple (say a 16/17 year old dating a 15/16 year old) from being prosecuted as a sex offender if they ended up having sex while the younger person was still not of the age of consent. Yet when something like this newsbite happens, there will be people in the crowd that will hold up the stated law as if it is that black and white, and argue that it is a great idea for a 40+ year old man to sleep with a 16 year old girl "because it is legal". Give me a break. For instance, even though OilKiller is on my ignore list I would be anyone $5 that his post in this thread is along those lines.
Defending that law as if it were the only law to ever be infallable is basically just a thinly veiled announcement that you are a pedophile or are the kind of person who has the same sort of desires but is able to control them. What mature man would defend the right of a child to have sex? I'll answer you - the man that wants to have sex with that child, or watch them have sex with each other. Its friggen twisted. There is no reason that children should be in a rush to have sex the way our society works.
As an aside, why do we never see older women defending this position?
All people, especially children, can be manipulated. Can anyone in this case say that the girl was of sound and mature mind when they had sex? Was the consent valid (regardless of age)? This cop probably wasn't the only person she did this with either (not that that is necessarily true or overly relevant, I am just saying). She is just at fault here as anyone else and to me that does not show that she understands the potential consquences of her actions and shouldn't be judged to be capable of giving proper consent. What she did was reckless and immature.
I agree with the posters who are saying his consequences go well beyond what the judge passed down. His life as he knew it is destroyed. Consentual sex regardless of the age of the participants can have extremely powerful consequences in many areas of one's life. Neither one of these people considered that before going through with their actions and will have to deal with it accordingly. It is probably fair, though, that the child escapes the same sort of public branding that the police officer will in order to give her a chance to heal and mature properly before being crushed by the weight of public judgement. Is that guarnateed to happen? No... and it probably won't given her other circumstances, which is truly sad, but at least she has a chance. This guy should have known much better and therefore has a harder road back to redemption.
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