I'm getting really sick and tired of this shit

[Akasa]

Rape culture alive and well, victim blaming, cyber bullying, and more sticking up for the perps because they're on the football team.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/51434732/n.../#.UV4cPDcnLAk

[Canarr]

There's not too much detail on the charges, but from what I gather, the two 18-year-olds have been charged with statutory rape, not rape; that is a difference, is it not?

Also, this doesn't look like Steubenville to me. There's no organized activity of school and police officials trying to hush up what happened; there's just a bunch of kids who are making stupid internet posts - which, surprise! is what kids do. And, from what I gather, people in charge at the school are taking steps to stop this crap:

Many adults in the community have been aghast at the posts, particularly those attacking the girls. They also have expressed frustration that many teenagers do not understand the statutory rape law, which is predicated on the notion that juveniles are not mature enough to consent to sex with an older partner. The furor prompted Kenneth Traub, the Board of Education chairman, to convene a community forum on sexual assault, with members of the Police Department and sexual assault counselors.

“It’s a hard time in Torrington right now,” said Barbara Spiegel, executive director of the Susan B. Anthony Project, a center here for battered women and victims of sexual assault.

School officials have asked Ms. Spiegel’s counselors to meet with students, including those in the dodgeball photo, acknowledging that administrators must try to change teenagers’ attitudes without being able to regulate what they say online. At Torrington Middle School, where the two victims are in eighth grade, administrators also called an assembly to warn against online “name-calling.”

“It’s not completely uncharted territory, but it’s new,” Ms. Spiegel said. “A while back it was Myspace, and then it was Facebook, and then it was sexting, and now it’s Twitter.”

So, to talk about a "rape culture" here seems a little overly dramatic, I'd say.

[Kheldarson]

It looks like two 18 year olds and two 17 year olds were arrested for messing with the two girls. So it's a bigger problem than just two boys.

And while the adults are aghast, it's the students who are perpetrating the continuing rape culture. Some seem to think that the girls are "whores" who "do this often" and should also be arrested, since the boys were. Never mind the girls are only 13.

[Canarr]

The police has so far stated that the two 18-year-olds were arrested for "separate episodes around Feb. 10" and so far "police have not said whether the arrests [of the two 17-year-olds] are related, only that there are two victims". So, yeah: it looks like all four boys were "messing with the two girls", as Kheldarson puts it.

However: what does "perpetuating the continuing rape culture" even mean in this case? Let's face it: teenagers mess around with each other all the time. Most of us have done that when we were that age, so I can see how teenagers don't understand that suddenly, it's supposed to be wrong - if nobody has explained that to them beforehand.

So, in my mind, the school is handling this in the right way: educate their students about the laws for statutory rape, and why it is necessary to make it illegal for older kids to have sex with younger kids who can't yet fathom their consequences of this act. And why their friends, if they broke the law, need to be taken to court and punished accordingly.

Kids do stupid things. That's part of being kids, and that alone doesn't say much about the culture - rape or otherwise - of any given community. How the adults responsible for the kids *handle* their children's stupidity, whether or not they show them the errors of their ways, and do their best to get them to do right the next time, *that* says something about a community. And from the article quoted in the OP, Torringont doesn't look so bad in that regard.

[Ginger Tea]

I have not read the article and all my thoughts are not pertained to the event ifself ...

Seeing as in this case the girls were 13 and the charges are statutory, young adults should have a few things hammered into their heads
(again I am not discussing the girls in question as I have not read the OP)

Girls that age and younger are off limits (also try and keep it out of those a year under your legal age of consent)
I don't care if she is covered in chocolate and literally offering herself up on a plate
Her daddy's rich and she'll buy you a ferari if you pop her cherry.
etc

[Gravekeeper]

Seeing as in this case the girls were 13 and the charges are statutory, young adults should have a few things hammered into their heads
(again I am not discussing the girls in question as I have not read the OP)

Girls that age and younger are off limits (also try and keep it out of those a year under your legal age of consent)
I don't care if she is covered in chocolate and literally offering herself up on a plate
Her daddy's rich and she'll buy you a ferari if you pop her cherry.
etc

How? No seriously, how? You're asking a 17 year old high school student to exercise adult judgement and knowledge of the law to not mess around with people he/she goes to school with. Even if they turn 18 and are technically an adult, they are still in high school. How to tell, let alone convince, high school students that there's a magic limit where its suddenly illegal. So they should make sure their date isn't 3 years younger or older than they are.

Nevermind trying to explain it to everyone else around the incident. In the above article it seems like a lot of the flak being thrown at the girls is because other students think its unfair that only one party was arrested. They're not going to understand or accept that its because it was suddenly illegal one birthday ago. So they go straight to slut shaming because they need something to blame. In their minds they see one side get off "scott free" so to speak and see a trap whereby said party can do whatever they want and get other people arrested. Logical? No. But these are teenagers.

Not to mention that the laws around age of consent vary from state to state so there's no way you couldn't implement anything at a federal level.

Statutory rape laws are suppose to protect minors from predatory adults. Not minors from minors. High school students are not going to understand. You can explain all you want and sure some will comply. But some are not going to agree with it. Asking the one demographic most known for being self centered and rebellious to comply with an age limit that likely makes no sense from their perspective is pretty wishful thinking.

Heck, with the way the law is set up in the article, it would be possible for a high school couple to alternate between being legal and illegal every few months depending on where their birthdays are. 13 / 16, legal, one turns 17, illegal, other turns 14, legal again.

Pretty huge gamble to be taking on teenagers when the prize is being labelled a sex offender before they even start to make their way in life. And good luck making said way with that label in the US.

[RedRoseSpiral]

I understood in high school that it's illegal to fuck people who are a certain age even if we're in school together, so don't give me that bullshit. Everyone I knew were aware of laws. It's not that fucking hard.

[crashhelmet]

I understood in high school that it's illegal to fuck people who are a certain age even if we're in school together, so don't give me that bullshit. Everyone I knew were aware of laws. It's not that fucking hard.

The States each have their own laws constituting what the Age of Consent is. Some States also have "Age Difference Limits"

In California it's kind of tricky. The Age of Consent is 18, but if the other person is less than 3 years older, it's only a misdemeanor instead of a felony. However, if the minor is under 16, it's an automatic felony regardless of the other person's age difference.

Here in Nevada, AoC is 16 with a 5 year age difference. You can't go younger than 16 and the older party can't be 21 or older.

In New York, where one of these stories took place, the Age of Consent is 17, but they have a 4 year law that absolves people for going with someone younger as long as they're not younger than 11. 14 & 18? Rape. 14 and a half and 18? Not rape.

From Understanding New York Statutory Rape Laws: The Age of Consent

A person age 18 or older cannot have sex with a person under 13 years old under any circumstance. However, if the child is at least 13 and younger than 15, and if the adult is less than four years older than the child at the time of the sexual conduct, then that would release the adult defendant of criminal responsibility. Because this is an affirmative defense, the defendant, who usually carries no burden of proof at trial, has the burden of proving the age difference beyond a preponderance of the evidence (which is far less than the prosecution's burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.) For example, if a 14-and-a-half-year-old girl agrees to have sex with a boy on his eighteenth birthday, the 18-year-old would have an affirmative defense of being less than four years older than the victim.

Further, a 17-year-old would not be guilty of rape of a 12-year-old if the younger child agreed to the act. The 17-year-old might be guilty of a misdemeanor sexual offense, however.

But if a 17-year-old turns 18 before his or her partner turns 14, then as of the older child's eighteenth birthday, the sexual relations would be considered rape. This can be very disconcerting to the children and parents. It presents a scenario where sexual behavior that was legal on one day is be completely illegal the next.

So as you can see, it can be "that fucking hard"

[Gravekeeper]

I understood in high school that it's illegal to fuck people who are a certain age even if we're in school together, so don't give me that bullshit. Everyone I knew were aware of laws. It's not that fucking hard.

And because you experienced and complied with it that means EVERYONE on the continent does? The very article we're talking about disproves your position right out of the gate.

[kamn]

Crashhelmet You are basing this on the assumption that everyone keeps moving and cannot keep up with the laws. If we take Europe for example, we have varying consent laws as well. But you can be damned sure that people know the laws in their place of residence. I'm not saying that the teenagers should follow every single change, but consent laws aren't getting changed often, so the parents should have hammered that knowledge into the teenagers brains. Something along the lines of "don't play with fire, electricity or people below the age of consent. If anything goes wrong with any of them, your life is probably going to get farked up really fast!"...

[Nyoibo]

I know when I was younger it was damn hard to find out the age of consent laws, no one knew them, hell even most of the adults didn't know them.

[ngc_7331]

How? No seriously, how? You're asking a 17 year old high school student to exercise adult judgement and knowledge of the law to not mess around with people he/she goes to school with.

If I read the article correctly, they weren't in the same school. The 13 year old is still in middle school which makes me wonder what a high schooler would want in a middle schooler. As far as I remember, it was extremely uncool to be seen associating with someone who was a freshman as a senior much less a middle school girl.

[fireheart17]

I know when I was younger it was damn hard to find out the age of consent laws, no one knew them, hell even most of the adults didn't know them.

They were repeatedly quoted in the girlie magazines I read growing up, so I knew them verbatim.

The age of consent is 17 regardless of gender in my state (in all other states apart from Tasmania, it's 16 and Queensland has a rule about homosexual sex being 18).

The age of difference rule down here is 2 years. After that, it's statutory rape. Of course, the lone douchebags in my year interpreted this as "girls can start fucking at age 16, guys have to wait until they're 17"

[Gravekeeper]

My high school was grade 8-12. I do not consciously recall anyone being aware of or caring about any age of consent laws. Teachers and parents included. Oddly enough the world didn't end. Dating between grades wasn't super common, but it wasn't considered odd or bad either.

As above, the worst you'd be considered is uncool. ( Though the younger would become more cool to the older's loss of cool ) -.-

[wolfie]

In California it's kind of tricky. The Age of Consent is 18, but if the other person is less than 3 years older, it's only a misdemeanor instead of a felony. However, if the minor is under 16, it's an automatic felony regardless of the other person's age difference.

Here in Nevada, AoC is 16 with a 5 year age difference. You can't go younger than 16 and the older party can't be 21 or older.

So what happens if a couple of 15 year olds have sex in CA or NV? Are they both guilty of a felony?