Statutory Rape

Statutory Rape
A fifteen-year-old killed girl herself after have sexual relations with eighteen-year-old Austin Renaud. The boy ,charged with the statutory rape of Phoebe Prince, pleaded not guilty in Hampshire Superior Court. Prince hanged herself after being bullied by Renaud’s ex-girlfriend and four other students. Austin’s attorney claimed that the boy tried desperately to help Prince as the bullying escalated, but was unsuccessful at preventing suicide by Phoebe Prince (Associated Press). Nevertheless, is it the boy’s fault that Phoebe Prince committed suicide? If Phoebe Prince had consensual sexual orientations with Renaud should he be guilty of statutory rape? In general, most matters concerning statutory rape usually conclude to be the fault of an older male involved in sexual relations with a younger female. Statutory rape laws are patronizing to girls and discriminatory against boys.
Statutory rape laws state that it is unlawful and illegal for an adult who is legally eighteen or over the age of eighteen to engage in sexual relations with a minor. Every state has a statutory rape law in some form. These laws usually confine men for what could be consensual sexual activity with minors who are close to the age of majority (Colb). Statutory rape laws vary from state to state in regards to the age of consent. The national average is the age of sixteen (Burrell).
Statutory rape laws have a past. The main purpose was to guard the virginity of young maidens against seduction by unscrupulous cads. To give up one’s “virtue” to a man who was unwilling to pay with his hand in marriage was foolish and presumptively a product of youthful, poor judgment (Colb).
Men are unethically treated when it comes to statutory rape cases. In comparison to women, men are basically discriminated against. Eighteenth Century British Jurist Sir Matthew Hale was convinced that rape “is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended by the...