"Levels of rape"

Do you always post in a manner that makes quoting your reply cumbersome?



Age changes people. Simple as that. At different points in peoples lives they are looking for different things. They have different expectations in life and of the people around them. Teenagers typically have short term non-committal relationships and are looking to experiment. Adults on the other hand are typically looking for a more serious commitment.

Teenage girls do indeed develop crushes on older men and teenage boys develop crushes on older women. But there is a difference between dreaming, desire and actually committing.



What about it?



It was to me. And no your argument doesn't stand. The law is rarely applied as blindly as you suggest. In cases of under age sex, sexual assault or rape the line is blurred as you put it where there is or isn't a public interest in having the case prosecuted.



Modern developed countries aren't dismissing anything with legislation. Instead they recognise that children going through puberty are less able to think through the consequences of making a decision and have therefore quite rightly decided that certain decisions need to be taken for these children for the benefit of their own welfare.

In other words, developed nations recognise that teenagers are risk takers. And indeed research on teenage brains confirms they are wired to take risks without thinking through the consequences. Unlike fully mature adults. That makes teenagers particularly vulnerable to making bad decisions or to being taken advantage of.

As I said in my previous answer. There are practical reasons for the social taboos surrounding having sex at too early an age. A teenage girls body in general simply isn't fully developed enough to support a healthy pregnancy.

Dangers of teenage pregnancy.
 
"Levels of rape"

This is not exclusive to teenagers - there are many, many adults who suffer from the same lack of foresight.
 
"Levels of rape"

I think that you should maybe get a broader experience of the older crowd if you really believe that they are looking for something different from teenagers, I see many men and women older than I who flout and pout more than the kids do. When i was a teenager i had the same desires i have now, I have never been interested in one night stands and always sought long term relationships, but that is just me.
The only difference between the 'dreaming', as you so poetically put it, and the actual act is simply nothing more than circumstance. Trying to justify anything to do with sex by talking about commitment is silly, they can be, and almost certainly were through most of our history, mutually exclusive.



Obviously agreeing with you. Duh.



Eh? Yes my argument does stand because it is my argument, You can disagree by all means but that doesn't negate my view. BTW that part about public interest is the whole argument here. The age consent limit was raised because of public outcry fueled by journalistic sensationalism, hardly a good reason now is it.





Except that falls over when one country can have a difference of 2 years between when these foolhardy risk takers are capable of making safe rational decisions, depending on where you live. Again how does a fixed age ensure that all fears are nullified when we all know that some mature quicker than others and some will always make bad decisions all their life?



Pregnancy and child birth is a risky business for all species and all ages, Yes there are more chances of complications in an underdeveloped body, but I never mentioned that it was fine to become pregnant as soon as it is possible, but that the biological ability is a clearer mark for sexual activity than a random age picked by beaurocrats in the face of public disharmony.
 
"Levels of rape"

Also depends on who you are, with exceptions, if you've got a lot of money you won't be prosecuted.
 
"Levels of rape"

I just came up with a joke:
"I'm so sexy that governments classify women being in my adonis-like presence as a level of rape"
On a serious note we have laws on age limits for intercourse that work. Most people who argue against them have or are breaking them.
 
"Levels of rape"

As i said at the beginning of this thread, I am guilty of statutory rape (although that law didn't exist at the time) however it was not rape nor violent or coerced in any way. I loved her and lived with her for around eight years and have two wonderful children from her as a result. So on a serious note the age limits for sex do not work and are the result of a knee jerk response from a too-sensitive (at the time) population being shocked and horrified that people have sex and some of those abuse their positions of power to gain from this. It's a little like banning against the carrying of knives and expecting no one to now get stabbed. Criminals don't care and are not halted by the law.
 
"Levels of rape"

This. And indeed, many teens who are sensible and realize that the decisions you make today will still have consequences tomorrow.

I'm also not sure that risk taking is simply about hardwiring. I certainly didn't find that once I turned into the 18-20 age range I magically gained the ability to carefully think about what the consequences of my actions might be. I had to learn it and I still fail at it sometimes. I'd venture that some young people don't tend to think long term because they're only just coming up to an age where they actually have to.

I'd also like to point out that it isn't as simple as 'young people take risks'. I know that when I was younger, and even now although to a lesser extent, certain risks seemed more 'real' than others. I loved physical danger (downhill mountain biking, kickboxing, etc) and the concept of dying was so abstract I didn't really give it much thought. But I had a healthy fear of being pregnant. Death was just an abstract black void, but you have to live every day with that baby and go through nine very real months of being sick, in pain, not being able to move right, etc. So I was pretty paranoid about using contraception.
 
"Levels of rape"

Today, my father would be guilty of some kind of rape. My rents started dating when she was 14 and he was 18. The consent law is 16 in canada now.

But of course, times were different then.
 
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