Teenage sexuality: The immense complexity of local laws, state lines and international travel

Every country and state has ever changing sex laws with different ages of consent, and Romeo and Juliet (age gap) exemptions. The consequences of travel across state and international borders are of extreme complexity so a team of local experts and international law experts should be consulted. 

Near state lines, adolescents need to carry GPS to make sure they are in the right state. When one partner is between 16 and 18 years old, then the location is of primordial importance. If you are an adolescent and think you can go to a more liberal neighboring state to engage in erotic and sexual activity, think twice: US federal law makes it a felony to cross state lines with the intent to have sex with an under 18 year old adolescent.

But, even if you cross between 2 states with age of consent of 16, with intent to have sex with your 17 year old lover, you still run afoul of federal law!? Certainly, if you travel to Europe to have legal sex with a 15 or 16 year old, as a US resident you are committing a felony by US law. If a non-resident European in the US receives his Green card (residency), his hitherto legal relationship in Europe suddenly becomes a felony in the US. Sex law attorneys have a golden future!

Case study: Vermont

Vermont: Age of Consent: 16 Age gap Provision: Yes*

Lewd or Lascivious Conduct with a Child:
No person shall willfully or lewdly commit and lewd or lascivious act upon or with the body, or any part or member thereof, of a child under the age of 16 years, with the intent of arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passion, or sexual desires, of such person. This section shall not apply if the actor is less than 19 years of age, the child is at least 15 years of age, and the contact is consensual.
Adolescent Sexual Behavior and the Law

Legal today, but felony after next birthday

Analyzing Vermont law, one can see

• If she is 14, he is 18. They have to wait. Not even a lewd act with the body. No touching!
• On her 15th birthday, they can have sex.
• Careful! on his 19th birthday, at midnight, what they legally did before, becomes a felony again.
• After she turns16, they can go back to having sex.

Easy, is it not? just put this into grade school curriculum. It is a good training for reading comprehension of legal codes.

While in Florida

If you are 23 and have a 16 year old girlfriend, beware of your 24th birthday. You will become a criminal!

Florida: Age of Consent: 18 Age Gap Provision: Yes*
Unlawful Sexual Activity with Certain Minors:
A person 24 years of age of older who engages in sexual activity with a person 16 or 17 years of age commits a felony in the second degree.
In Section 943.04354 it states that a person can be removed from the sex offender registry if they were not more than 4 years older than the victim at the time of the offense and the victim was at least 14 years of age or older.

Proof of this is in the outrageously unconstitutional Florida law that says an adult can have sex with a 16 year old but not if he has reached his 24th birthday.

This law shows there is ZERO intention of protecting a minor from being gang banged.

The football team can do your daughter but not their coach or me.

http://roissy.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/hank-moody-chump/

Genarlow Wilson in Georgia

The situation is tricky. Ganarlow Wilson got a 10 year mandatory minimum jail sentence because he received oral sex instead of engaging in intercourse.

Genarlow, a 17 year old high school senior, was arrested for engaging in oral sex with a consenting partner who was two years younger than he. Those two years would prove to be crucial in this case, since the victim was below the age of consent which is set at 16 in Georgia where the incident took place.[…]

Age Gap Provisions
Ironically, if Genarlow had engaged in sexual intercourse with the 15 year old at the New Year’s Eve party, he would have only been convicted of a misdemeanor and not have been made to serve any jail time or register as a sex offender due to Georgia’s inclusion of an Age Gap Provision in their Child Molestation law. Because he engaged in an oral sex (sodomy) act, his case was classified as Aggravated Child Molestation, which at the time did not have the Age Gap Provision.
Adolescent Sexual Behavior and the Law

Georgia has some extremely problematic provisions regarding underage sex.  Guaranteed to keep your legal counsel busy.

Crossing state lines from Georgia to Tennessee

Everything is different once one crosses into a different state. Easy to comprehend for teenagers if we prioritize sex law education in school. Failure to educate in sex laws has far more serious real life consequences then failure to know physics or history.

Georgia: Age of Consent: 16 Age Gap Provision: Yes* 4y

Tennessee: Age of Consent: 18 Age Gap Provision: Yes* 3y

• In Georgia, 16 year old with 35 year old is ok. In Tennessee this is aggravated statutory rape.
• But, no Georgia is not more liberal in general. Due to lower age gap provision, in Tennessee 18 y with 14 y is ok (4 year gap), which is a felony in Georgia.
• In Tennessee, 13 y with 15 y is ok. In Georgia, sex or molestation is not ok. Interestingly, in consequence to Ganarlow Wilson laws, sodomy is legal for them (?)

The complexity of the law taxes the analytic capacity to interpret and understand complex texts. Obviously Texas elementary and high school students need to know all the pertinent legislation of their state (plus the neighboring states in case they go on vacation or trips)

Tennessee: Age of Consent: 18 Age Gap Provision: Yes*

Mitigated Statutory Rape: Class E Felony
(a)Mitigated statutory rape is the unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant, or of the defendant by the victim when the victim is at least 15 years of age but less than 18 and the defendant is at least 4 but not more than 5 years older than the victim.
Statutory Rape: Class E Felony
Statutory rape is the unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant or the defendant by the victim when:
(1)The victim is at least 13 years of age but less than 18 years of age and the defendant is at least 4 years older than the victim; or
(2) This victim is at least 15 years of age but less than 18 years of age and the defendant is more than 5 years older than the victim.
Aggravated Statutory Rape: Class D Felony
Is the unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant, or the defendant by the victim when the victim is at least 13 years of age but less than 18 and the defendant is at least 10 years older than the victim.  Adolescent Sexual Behavior and the Law

And in Brazil

A teen was arrested at his 18th birthday, with his 17 year old girl friend of many years. In Brazil, sex with adolescents of 14-17 years can be prosecuted under certain circumstances, especially upon parents’ complaint. On the other hands, adolescents under 18 get away even with murder because a minor’s criminal liability is extremely limited. So the girl’s father, a judge, waited for the 18th birthday to incriminate the poor boy. Certainly the girl appreciated the "protection" against abuse.

Muslim countries like Turkey

In Muslim countries, even foreigners can be convicted to serious whipping for minor "transgressions". Sex is a special taboo.

The following case caused major diplomatic ripples between Germany and Turkey

• Teenage boy jailed and sentenced for consensually kissing teenage girl (Marco Weiss-Charlotte-Turkey)

In addition to months in Turkish jails, poor Marco was in danger to be re-victimized and put before German courts after his return.

           and Saudi Arabia

I was told by that unmarried Saudi women returning from liberal Kuwait are routinely examined by Gynecologists at the  Saudi Kuwaiti border.  Traces of sperm ==> whipping for unlawful fornication outside marriage.

The dangers of false accusations

are even worse for adolescents then for adults. Like in Marco’s case in Turkey, there always is the aggravating circumstance that potentially false accusations of abuse, sex, and rape (especially against males) are always believed. The accused is arrested, tried and convicted, under complete disregard of constitutional human rights of due legal process.

If a girl was caught red-handed by mom, false rape accusations come in handy to distract from her own consent. But consent is irrelevant in adolescent rape cases, hence these accusations are even more dangerous then among adults.

• Yes means No! Forcibly raping a 17 year old is the same rape as consensual love making.
• Consent, rape & minors. What is consent to sex?

But even if the boy did nothing at all, false accusations are an even more powerful weapon of destruction and revenge. In the case of adolescents, there is no need to even allege non-consent, false allegations of consensual indecent acts are enough!