Oklahoma Sexual Predator Laws
I just got finished with a heated debate here at work over the local laws regarding sexual predators.
According to the letter of the law in my state each of these scenarios requires you to register with the sex offenders database in Oklahoma.
1) An 18 year old male, who is sexually active with his 17 year old girlfriend, finds that he has gotten her pregnant.
2) A 45 year old man, has taken a liking to little girls, one day, he sexually assaults an 8 year old girl who is playing in her front yard.
By law, if convicted, both of these individuals will be classified as sexual predators in this state and cannot have a residence within 2000 ft of a public or private school.
Nowhere in our laws are provisions for the severity of the offense. What makes a 17 year old pregnancy by the hands of an 18 year old, equal under the eyes of the law, to a 45 year old who feels he needs to molest children? Why do we have multiple degrees in our murder, rape and assault laws, yet when it comes to a sexual offense it’s black or white.
You should face hell on earth, the inability to function in society for the remainder of your natural life for the violation described in situations like #2.
You should still, in the eyes of the law, face some form of punishment if you face a conviction of statutory rape, or something of equal violation. It is no where NEAR equal to the second situation, so your punishment should not be as severe. In regards to the first situation though… what makes sex between a 18/17 couple different than sex between a 19/18 couple other than the legal number?
John
22 Nov, 2005
I always wondered what magical thing happened to me between being 20 years, 364 days, 23H, 59min, 59sec and 21 that allowed me to drink and gamble. I thinks severity should be taken into account. Let the punishment fit the crime but have some discretion. If it was statutory rape, but consentual, it shouldn’t be treated as an act of force.
Libertarian Jason
22 Nov, 2005
Funny you should blog about this… I have a friend who is an assistant DA over in Pennsylvania, who specializes in the prosecution of sex crime….(typically molestation, but the occassional “statuatory rape” comes his way). He mentioned to me that in some states…(I’m not sure if PA is one of them)….that they have an age margin test…perhaps, let’s say, plus/minus 3 years….
In such cases, your 18 year old boy/17 year old girl would fit the test, and the charge falls into a different classification of a crime…. But obviously, the 45 year-old/8 year old would not, and would be classified as a very severe criminal act.
I too think there is a lot of irrationality behind our laws regarding sex…and many times, the title “sex offender” is used way too loosely, and destroys a lot of lives in the process, because let’s face it… you tell someone you’re a sex offender, and you might as well have said you are from Mars.
Fred Mangels
23 Nov, 2005
Here in California I believe there’s an enhancement of the penalty if the age difference is more than ten years. I don’t know the specifics but I think it’s something like, if the girl is fourteen and the guy is twenty six then there’s enhanced penalties.
Personally I don’t think it should be considered a crime at all if it’s consensual sex, regardless of age. I’ll admit to being somewhat confused as to how a situation between an eight year old and forty plus year older, as described above, should be handled. I’ll concede that, at some point, a minor could be young enough to be judged incompetent to give knowing consent. I don’t know at what age that line should be drawn, though.
James
23 Nov, 2005
Personally I don’t think it should be considered a crime at all if it’s consensual sex, regardless of age.
This is the grey area of Statutory Rape. While most states allow for consent in the areas from 16 to 18 years of age, as it’s very hard to draw a hard line in the sand and say “this is the age where you decide if you can be responsible for your body”.
I wouldn’t say “regardless of age” because, while I wouldn’t label two children that are 15 having sex as sex offenders, I still object to the activity due the maturity of the individuals involved.
Fred Mangels
23 Nov, 2005
Perhaps. I know I had my first “sexual experience” with another person when I was around 11. I’ve heard and read many others say the same thing. I’d hate to have gotten arrested for something like that as no harm was done, imo.
When I worked in Juvenile Hall, there were numerous kids brought in for “child molest” and “lewd conduct”, or some such. I never really knew the details of the supposed crime but I wondered how many of those were just kids fooling around or “playing doctor”, so to speak.
Some social worker/ counselor type came in to see one of the kids that was in for some sex related crime. As I recall she was some kind of counselor for kids involved in both sides of sex crimes. I asked her as she was leaving something along the lines of, “Don’t some of these supposed child molest crimes really amount to kids “playing doctor”…? Boy, did she get lit up over that. She was pissed. I forget what she said but she wouldn’t hear any of that kind of talk.
Heck. All I did was ask a question I was curious about. Some kids that were brought in over and over again for the same sort of thing might well have had criminal tendencies, as far as sex goes. Others, who knows. I agree that kids probably shouldn’t engage in some types of behaviour. Queston is, how far do you go in punishing such behaviour?