The increasing number of affirmed accusations against female school teachers for having consensual sex with under-age boys ought to bring the complex and often taboo subject of statutory rape under scrutiny.
Statutory rape is a broad, non-technical term for “rape” by way of legal statute. Its pretense is that adolescents under a certain age, usually between 14-18 depending on the state, are deemed unsuited to give consent to sexual relations of any kind and to anyone, not just older partners.
Given the average age of first-time intercourse is 17, the law has been broken by most without repercussion or public outcry.
The age of the partners in question, the age difference between partners, and whether the “offender” holds a position of authority, such as teachers and coaches, determine the severity of the crime and maximum sentence.
The overarching interest of creating a staunch, cut-and-dry legal statute aimed at protecting vulnerable youths and deterring potentially malevolent predators is understandable, but such blanket restrictions can turn victimless crimes into false calamities against humanity.
It defies sensibility to invoke the word “victim” when discussing the 14-year-old boy from Florida who endured the torturous agony of having consensual sex over and over again in the classroom, at home and in an SUV on the freeway with his reading teacher, a 23-year-old “firecracker” named Debra LaFave.
In 2004 LaFave followed the female sex-teacher pioneer, Mary K. Letourneau, and became perhaps the most infamous of sex teachers, largely due to Lafave’s barbie-doll looks and her documented sexual deviance.
The charges against her had a 30-year maximum prison sentence which reflect an overemphasis on generic content like age, rather than scaling age with the circumstances of the case.
The victimization propaganda fueling the public’s simplistic narrative on statutory rape is peddled by the courts, psychologists, social opinion leaders and Terri Miller, the president of Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation in Nevada.
“This isn’t an affair; it’s abuse, and we have to shift the paradigm,” Miller told TIME magazine of female sex predators like LaFave. “We say, ‘Bully for the boy and his conquest of the geometry teacher,’ but that makes it harder for boys to vocalize their victimization.”
Statutory rape has haphazardly allowed consensual sex to become synonymous with violent, forcible rape, sexual abuse and assault. It should be apparent that the interchangeability of consensual sex and sexual abuse (i.e., rape) leads to misguided conclusions because they follow from false premises.
Finding the “victimization card” laughable does not require having a PhD in psychology. Despite what the boy’s father said about LaFave”” “It’s a horrible, ugly thing that she’s done”””after the boy’s consummations with LaFave he was not overtaken by victimization, depression or thoughts of suicide. He was in an utter state of nirvana as he reflected on his provocative escapades with LaFave amongst his buddies, deliriously dumbstruck as to what he had done to deserve living out every boy’s fantasy.
If there is a victim here it is LaFave, a women whose bi-polar disorder and many other emotional and psychological handicaps subjected her, a mildly attractive women, to sexual relations with a 14-year-old kid. The boy, however, is quite the opposite of a “victim.” He’s what sane people and Creedence Clearwater Revival would call a fortunate son.
The infamous LaFave saga does not define all “female sex predator” cases; many involve legitimate manipulation and physical and mental abuse, often instigated by an adult holding a position of authority. Surely it is appropriate that LaFave, due to her professional obligations and position of power, pay the professional and social consequences of being barred from teaching and having to register as a sex offender, but current protocols of legal recourse are drastically out of bounds.
The same rule applies if the gender roles are switched. The circumstances of any inappropriate sexual relationship should guide the response, not numbers. For instance, if a 16-year-old girl is legally permitted to give consent and abort her fetus, it is not easily defended that such a person is legally prohibited from giving sexual consent to a much older man. This analogy is not perfect because statutory rape involves a second actor who is sometimes in a position of power over the consenter, but it is suggestive.
__________________ • Nov 13, 2010 at 6:04 am
If only female teachers where just sexually attracted to adolescent male students then there could be a case for an argument but the unfortunate truth is that some female teachers do pose a serious risk to younger students as in the case of Elementary School teacher Jennifer Rice who kidnapped & raped a 10 year old male student.
Teacher gets 25 years to life for sex crimes
Student Victim: Sentence mandated for kidnapping and rape of 10-year-old
http://www.theolympian.com/2009/07/25/920620/teacher-gets-25-years-to-life.html
http://badbadteacher.com/jennifer-rice/
Surely you can’t condone female teachers having sex with 10 year old boys can you?
Gilbert • Nov 4, 2010 at 7:27 am
Ingenious article, and comes to a point I have been making since the case broke. I told my friends in law school at the time that “watch, she’ll get a slap on the wrist and be treated differently.” The fact is, while she got a rather severe sentence, the point made in this article is clear.
It is time to stop defining age is the determining criteria as to where the offense lies. One must look at a host of factors. Let us begin, then, with the boy’s age. He was 14, and we can all safely assume that he is a prototypical 14-yo old boy. Hormones, etc. He was not a victim in any sense of the word. Stupid for bragging about it to the point that he ruined his own living fantasy? Debatable. Had I been him at that age, I can assure you that I would have done everything to keep that under wraps – and believe me, victim is the last thing I would have defined myself as. Luckiest kid in the school, now THAT is a label I am sure he wore as a badge of honor.
I laughed when we called him a victim, he wasn’t – and the clear amount of sexual information absorbed by anyone by the age of 12 in this country has come to the point that they are very well informed, indeed – so, he knew what he was getting into. Accidental Google search results often educate older folks on things they were never quite aware of. Even I learn something new by accidental search, urban dictionary definition, and the like. One can imagine what a young person can absorb with increased idle time.
Focusing now on the reverse – a female student of the same age, male teacher. Suffice it to say I am aware of three affairs from my high school days of girls with male teachers. The women in question went on to lead normal, well-rounded lives, went to college, married, had kids and never once cried victim or foul as they knew they were willing participants and knew what they were doing and one even told me she enjoyed the fact that an older man treated her better than her peer male group. No cries of rape, no charges levied. In retrospect, why would there be? They were well aware. Over coffee once not long after the LaFave saga hit, I asked one of the girls whom I am still friends with her stance on the matter. She said, bluntly “That boy is no more a victim than I was, I tempted my male teacher, and I knew what I was doing at 15 – age was not the issue, hormones were. Why cry rape when it was consensual?” I almost spit my latte up in laughter at the situational comparison.
But indeed, it raises the broader question – should we not take into question why the minimum age is set in rigid stone as it is when we say at 16 you can determine the life of the fetus but yet a person that age cannot consent to sex with a person of much older age? That makes no sense in the grand scheme of things. (Nor does it make sense to say you can die for your country and vote at 18, but cannot drink at 18 – though that is a debate for another day). One must look at when it is truly sexual abuse and bring in the realities of rape – physical, mental, psychological, emotional – and not play a game of “by the numbers.”
Given the fact that even our good Disney friend Miley Cyrus has shown her preference for men two to three times older than her since she was 14, does it shock us to learn that people develop sexually according to their own pace, not by the numbers? So, for Ms. Cyrus, where was the outrage then when her underwear model boyfriend who was older than her was living in the same house (though note, he “stayed in a different room”)? Why haven’t any of her more than double-aged male “friends” been locked up with the key and thrown away – like the 38 yr old music video producer she did her lapdance for and the few hours where the two were unaccounted for that evening? Now we have a celebrity issue – she’s Miley. So, we let that slide. Because America does not want to admit that – shocker – by the age of 16, you have been educated enough to know the consequences of your actions. In actuality, you probably do by 14 (I know I did).
Time to rethink what we’re doing in this country and take a more European or Eastern European approach on these matters.
Jermaine Wallace • Oct 23, 2010 at 6:37 am
What trash and utterly scandalous!
We shall not parse female-on-young male rape young man. Too suggest that a victim enjoyed his victimization because she resumed a relationship with him? Is the same victim-battering done to women who stay w/abusive men?
Let’s reverse your analysis-“She must’ve enjoyed the Rape…she stayed with him!
Have you any shame?
Krigsman.Inc • Oct 22, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Looks like Mr Boylan has been injection estrogen again.
Amanda • Oct 22, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I’m disgusted with these misogynist comments.
Only men are capable of rape.
This just exposes another terrible law used by the patriarchy to subjugate females.
When the patriarchy wakes up and stops trying to control the sexuality of women, then we’ll have true equality, and women can finally feel safe from rape.
Szebran • Oct 22, 2010 at 7:40 pm
This article is female chauvinist hypocrisy (in other words its feminist). Why do U claim its Ok 4 a boy to have sex with an adult women but wrong 4 a girl to have sex with an adult man????? Thats like claiming females don’t like sex – very niave.
Girls and boys look up to adults & may even have fantasies (yes Mike, girls do have fantasies as shocking as that is to you) but these kids are NOT ready for this kind of realtionship.
And the adult women that you defend are only manipulating these boys like puppets to get what they want. Its easier for a women to manipulate a boy rather than have an equal relationship with a man.
h0tr0d • Oct 22, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Wow….exhibit A in misandry. Nice work.
Jeff • Oct 22, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Most of the sexual predation of male teachers on female students do not involve violent rape. the girls want to have sex with their teacher, and the teacher obliges. Then the girl is not a victim.
Nevertheless, the male teacher-rapist gets a lengthy prison term and the female teacher-rapist gets a free pass to counselling. She’s a victim.
Same crime. No forcible rape. Underage victims give consent. Man gets lengthy prison term. Woman gets help as a victim herself.
Give me a f—ing break. That’s plainly unjust.