The Complication with Statutory Rape Laws There is no question that it is necessary to protect our children in today’s society. The big question is , do the statutory rape laws provide this protection? Indeed in a way it does, this law is effective in preventing teenage pregnancy and the negative consequences that come along with it. On the other hand , the cons of the rape law outweighs the positive effects , like the concept of age of consent ,and its ability to only prosecute the adult who engages in these activities. In this essay , the benefits that come along with the statutory rape law and also the negative effects will closely be examined and it will be clear that this law requires a great amount of changes to satisfy it’s incongruity. …show more content…
Statistics show that approximately half of newborn babies are born to underages women with an adult father (Donovan). Almost half of these pregnancies has resulted in welfare case overload.The statutory rape law can help prevent underage pregnancy and therefore help reduce the amount of welfare cases.Welfare federal law urges states to enforce the statutory rape laws as much as possible, if the law were to be forced aggressively it is believed that men will not prey on young adolescents in fear of severe criminal consequences. California’s Governor Wilson announced a plan to do so , a program known as Statutory Rape Vertical Prosecution funds the hire staff that works to enforce statutory rape laws: “Initially, the 16 California counties with the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy involving adult men each received $150,000 to hire new staff. Early in 1996, however, the governor proposed a $6 million expansion of the initiative—bringing the total allocated to $8.4 million—to fund the state's remaining counties.” …show more content…
If an adult and a minor was to engage in sexual activities , then most likely only the adult would face criminal charges. In the state of Texas, some of the criminal charges that can be brought upon a perpetrator are : Aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault,and indecency with a child. Aggravated sexual assault can be charged to the first degree and can be a penalty of at least five years and up to 99 years(Steiner). Sexual assault and indecency with a child can be charged to the second degree and can be sentenced for a minimum of two years and a maximum of 20 years(Steiner). In addition to that , the state of Texas requires that those who are convicted of statutory rape , register as sex offenders.Statutory rape is counteractive because of its ability to inflict criminal liability of an adult for the same intercourse by which the adult is also a victim of rape.The statutory rape law fails to criminalizing offenses that involve rape by juvenile , which is considered to be adult impersonation. Adult impersonation is when a minor claims to be of age to partake in sexual activities with an adult. This activity qualifies as rape by fraud which acts as a defense to statutory rape. The use of this can be difficult to use as a defense. It is necessary to reveal whether the sexual intercourse between the minor and adult was a “good-faith mistake” and under these certain circumstances : “where the victim's age was under the age