This past week some of the kids at the ministry I work at had been talking about R Kelly. Many of them don't see a problem with what R Kelly did. They don't seem to care how old the participant in the now infamous R Kelly tape is. In my opinion part of this has to do with the acceptance in the inner city of older men being with much younger girls. Many teenage girls have twenty something boyfriends.
Obviously from a moral perspective what R Kelly did was wrong. However should his actions be illegal? Now I know the argument that the girl was well aware of what she was doing and made a choice. I'm also aware that many people feel that someone at the age of 14 is not adult enough to make those kind of decisions. The problem then lies with the hypocrisy of our system. Many conservative mouth pieces were outraged at what was done to this "child". However these are the same people in the media that would call for the same girl to be charged as an adult had she committed a crime. So the girl is not adult enough to make decisions about sex, but is completely adult enough to know the consequences of matters of life and death?
I for one think that it should be illegal for someone to have any sexual contact with a person under the age of 18. However I also think that there should be a flat age for when someone becomes an adult in the eyes of the state. If they are under 18, they get charged as a minor, no way around it. However our system has taken on a case by case basis, which has lead to widespread discrimination. Black youths are twice as likely to be charged as adults as white youths. In order to take bias and discrimination completely out of the equation there needs to be a national adult age. I would say that 18 makes the most sense. At 18 you should have all the rights and responsibilities of an adult. Before that you're a minor.
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Laws against "statutory rape" are intended to protect minors from adults. These are crimes against them, or at least this is how the law sees it.
Minors may sometimes be charged for serious crimes (like murder) because these are crimes against others. That's the difference.
Statutory rape basically says that a minor cannot give consent. This because minors are not capable of making these decisions. However then the law turns around and says that a black 12 year old who accidentally kills his sister doing wrestling moves understood his actions fully? Either someone at the age of 14 understands their consequences of their actions or they don't.
Again the problem with not having a unified age is that blacks are charged as adults for drug possession, gun possession, assault, and robbery while whites are given a slap on the wrist from family court.
"Either someone at the age of 14 understands their consequences of their actions or they don't."
Really? Is this an all or nothing matter? Are you saying that if you understand the consequences of one kind of action you thereby understand the consequences for all your actions? Surely not. That's not how we become full moral agents.
Does a 14 know that if you intentionally shoot someone with a gun with the purpose of harming them that it can kill? Surely.
Does a 14 year old know enough about pregnancy, STDs, parental responsibility, etc. to responsibly consent with full information to sexual intercourse with an adult? Surely not.
P.S. Why is the race of the child in your example relevant?
I would say that it is very hard to say that a person can be considered a child in one instance and an adult in another.
Do children know about parental responsibility? No but neither do their parents.
Do children know about the risks of pregnancy and disease? Probably, they've been taught sex ed since 5th grade. The problem is that kids don't think that it will happen to them.
Just as they don't fully think through the consequences before committing a crime.
Once again murder isn't the only crime in which youths are sentenced as adults. As I said it also happens for assault, robbery, theft, and possession.
While young people might know someone will die if they shoot them, they may not know that is wrong. In many households in our neighborhood shooting someone who shot at you, a friend, or family member is not only acceptable but honorable.
Race is important. Since right now there is a case by case basis, blacks are more likely to be charged as adults.
An example http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20010318jracereg9.asp
If you don't think that there is a serious racial problem in our legal system, you haven't been paying attention.
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