Essay on History of the Statutory Rape Laws

Introduction

Statutory rape in the eyes of the law is the the sexual intercourse that takes place between an adult and a minor deemed young enough to give their consent into having sexual relations. The law on statutory rape has undergone through various phases here in the United States. Once a victim who is unmarried to the adult and is under the legal age of consent as established in the law, then they automatically are not in any position to give consent to sexual activity. At the very beginning, the statutory rape laws were gender specific in that an adult male was punitively charged for engaging in sexual activity with an underage female who is not his wife, thus lacking consent. This is in stark contrast to the contemporary statutory rape laws that have since become gender neutral in that either an adult male or female can be charged with engaging in sexual intercourse with a puberty minor under the age of consent. The laws were initially intended to protect minor and the institution of marriage in the society, although they have undergone substantial and fundamental changes to the present day.

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Purpose of the Law in the Past

The statutory law was applied with the objective of maintaining the sanctity of marriage as an institution and ensuring that men took responsibility for their sexual actions with puberty minors. That is why the law was largely gender specific in that it targeted the men who had sexual intercourse with minors under the legal age of consent without marrying them. The underlying evidence that this law sought to attain these objectives can be found in the fact that sexual activity was taking place between older women with minor teenage boys who had not attained the age of consent. In this case, however, it was taken to be as a form of initiation for the boys and the law did not dwell too much on these relations much like the ones between adult males and underage girls. The law allowed the two individuals to be married before engaging in such an intercourse, shifting the responsibility to the men who had to adhere to the law and bear the consequences afterwards as the legal husbands to their underage brides.

Importance of Statutory Law Back When It Was Enacted

The statutory law was essential during its enactment due to the protection that it accorded young girls away from sexual mistreatment. This is especially true considering the vulnerability of young ladies to be raped or sexually coerced by the male adults surrounding them in their lives. Girls engage in sexual activities much earlier than their male counterparts with reports showing that over two thirds of them did so through a coerced sexual engagement. This was even more concerning given most of the male perpetrators were close relatives or family friends. In the eyes of the law, the majority of prosecutors always have a hard time trying to prove rape allegations. This challenge was conveniently handled by the statutory rape law which required a lighter burden of proof. As long as sexual activity transpired between a male adult and a female underage minor as the victim of sexual abuse, then the jury would convict the accused. The possibility of this happening, together with the statutory rape law itself, acted as effective deterrents against the sexual abuse of minor girls (Freedman, 2013).

Has the Statutory Rape Law Been Helpful to the Society?

After undergoing various changes over the past decades, the statutory rape laws cannot be said to have been effectively helpful to the society irrespective of their well-intended objectives. This is because while they were meant to safeguard the welfare of teenage girls away from sexual molesters and abusers, it turned out to be a tool of use in punishing the sexuality among adolescents (Fradella & Sumner, 2016). The core aim of the law was to revolve around the issue in that the adolescent girls had not reached full adulthood thus the need to shield them away from adult males wanting to take advantage of their naivety. However, these laws turned out to be more about marriage and not age since teenage girls of a similar age could be treated differently as long as one was married and the other one was not. The married one, regardless of her age status, will be deemed to have consented to sexual intercourse by the virtue of their marital status unlike their unmarried age mate who will be demonized for having sex outside marriage.

Is the Law Serving Its Goal/Purpose?

Needless to say, there is a good reason why the law has been undergoing alterations and reviews over the decades since its initial enactment. This is because it has not been fulfilling its purpose as it does not serve the interest of the society in a comprehensive manner. One way the law fails to uphold its goal is through the admission and conviction of statutory rape without the proof of one element. This is because the law in itself is contented with the lack of evidence as the happening of sexual intercourse suffices to find the accused guilty. One may also get convicted even in the absence of force showing coerced sexual intercourse (Sarat, 2015). Then there is the other defeatist agenda in which the law ought to circumvent the minor girls from the sexual exploitation of adult males, yet it is okay for this to happen under the institution of marriage. The statutory rape law has not been an effective deterrent to rapists nonetheless.

If Necessary, Why It Should Be Removed From the Books?

The statutory rape laws, if possible, ought to be removed from the books because they are misleading as currently constituted. This is because the laws have diverted away from their main objective of protecting and safeguarding female minors from being victims of sexual abuse together with the possible consequences thereof. Instead, the statutory rape laws become a toll of the society's perceptions towards sex and peoples' sexuality (Leonard, 2013). As such, rape cases ought to be prosecuted on a case by case basis instead of a blanket law that encompasses sexual experiences with minors under the guise of rape. It also defies logic how a minor can have the mature comprehension to grant their consent to engage in sexual activity. Adequate consent from the sexual partners can only be found when both of them are adults with the freedom to choose and shoulder the ensuing consequences. The laws have also not been effective in providing justice as innocent people could be jailed based on the words of a victim that bear weight even in the absence of proof beyond doubt as sufficing evidence.

Case Law to Back-up Argument and Controversy

The statutory case laws are said to bad as they have stemmed away from their intended use in the society and have become a tool of use by people in the society who find them favorable for their manipulation. As much as underage minor girls require protection from sexual molesters and predators, it does not mean that they can take advantage of this insulation to throw accusations at people for one reason or the other. This can best be illustrated through the statutory rape case law of Dixon versus the State (Dixon v. State, 2004). The facts of the case revolve around an 18-year-old Mr. Dixon who was an African-American college footballer living the predominantly white society of a Georgian suburb. The 16-year-old white girl who used to sit in front of him in class accused him of rape after they had a sexual intercourse. Unknown to the judge, the jury, and the prosecution team, was that the girl was only accusing her class mate due to her father's racist tendencies towards African-Americans. This brought to the fore the underlying concern that the statutory rape law could be manipulated by people of ill will against others. The witness in the case gave a testimony that the teenage victim of the sexual act was alleging the rape incident to avoid her violent and racist father. The perpetrator, Mr. Dixon, was convicted to a jail term of 10 years irrespective of the arising reasonable doubt brought about by the testimony of the witness (Dixon v. State, 2004). The issue of consent was conveniently ignored together with the lack of adequate evidence, with the sexual intercourse being enough to land the black teenager in prison cells. This is a clear demonstration that there is an urgent need to rethink, review, and reenact the statutory rape laws to make them water tight against the vulnerability of misuse by the misguided few within the society for their own personal gains. The statutory rape laws ought to be fair and just for all the people that they serve in the country.

References

Dixon v. State, 596 S.E.2d 147 (2004) (Supreme Court of Georgia May 3, 2004).

Fradella, H. F. & Sumner, J. M. (2016). Sex, sexuality, law, and (in)justice. Routledge.

Freedman, E. B. (2013). Redefining rape: Sexual violence in the era of suffrage and segregation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Leonard, A. S. (2013). Sexuality and the law: American law and society. Routledge.

Sarat, A. (2015). Law and lies: Deception and truth-telling in the American legal system. Cambridge University Press.