4 ms·

Where I am. the law on the age of consent contains a strong exemption for cases where the age difference is small. The age of consent is 15, but if a 15yo and a

Where I am. the law on the age of consent contains a strong exemption for cases where the age difference is small. The age of consent is 15, but if a 15yo and a 14yo have sex and are fine with it, their parents can scream their lungs out, the police will immediately dismiss it. Because our lawmakers remembered the purpose of the law: To stop adults from having sex with children, not to stop teenagers from having sex with each other. This is also something I've wondered about the US legal system, how much extra information is written into law? Where I am, in Sweden, which uses a different legal system, most laws come with instructions for how to interpret it. Does this exist in the US? Or is this built up by judges?

warfangle 17y ago
Here, laws are written by legislation, and interpreted by judges. As judges rule on different laws, the laws build up a case history. This is why becoming a lawyer in the US (especially if you want to be a trial lawyer) is so onerous. Not only do you need to be very familiar with the laws themselves - you have to be very familiar with how the laws have been interpreted since enactment.
- sili 17y ago
  Is there one single repository that links each law to cases that have referenced or interpreted it?
  - joeyo 17y ago
    AFAIK, no. There are the Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis databases, but I'm not sure if even they can be called completely authoritative. (And access to them is certainly not free.)
    - praptak 17y ago
      The implications are a bit disturbing. Paid access to those databases combined with case law means that if you are poor then you won't have full information about what can get you jailed.
      - abalashov 17y ago
        Yep.
      - warfangle 17y ago
        Even if you are rich, case law alone is so onerously large that perusing it and studying it would take a lifetime. I spent about ten minutes trying to find out just how large the corpus of case law is, and could find no references. Score one for the little guy, though: Google Scholar indexes (some; not sure how much of the corpus is covered) case law, as of Nov. 17, '09: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/finding-laws-that-govern-us.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/finding-laws-that-gov...
chasingsparks 17y ago
It is highly variable. I don't know anything about child pornography law, but I can safely assume that it was written at a time that could not anticipate the production of content by teenagers themselves. I clearly think that the cases listed are absurd. It is the Supreme Court's correct role to recast or reinterpret laws -- if necessary -- given recent applications.
- axod 17y ago
  >> "at a time that could not anticipate the production of content by teenagers themselves." At what point in the history of the universe did teenagers and kids not naturally play around with each other :/
  - maxwell 17y ago
    Never, but they didn't commonly transmit evidence of it before the last decade.
    - sophacles 17y ago
      Well, other than the occasional pregnancy. :P It does bring up the question: did anyone ever get prosecuted for underage sex based on a pregnancy? I mean, there isn't much better evidence of said sex...
      - pyre 17y ago
        Even in cases where the law states that it's illegal for a 18yo to have sex with a 17yo, it's still up to the prosecutor to be sane about it. That doesn't always happen. When the girl is pregnant, she still has to give up the father for them to know who to prosecute (traditionally the boy is prosecuted in these cases; sometimes they go for the girl if she is the older one, but if she is pregnant they may view her as the 'victim'). I guess she may give that information up when declaring who the father is to the hospital though, so I don't know. Maybe it just depends on how vindictive the parents are.
  - 17y ago
Periodic 17y ago
When I was in high school I was informed (and I remember because it was relevant at the time) that our councilors were legally obligated to report sexual activity only if any participant was 15 or under or if one was a minor and another was not. It was rather silly that a lot of students had a window of a few months during their senior year when their relationship could result in criminal charges, but before or after that it was fine.
- sliverstorm 17y ago
  It's even better when you consider, for example, a senior dating a junior starting from when they were both 15 <-> 18. Today, happy couple. Tomorrow, criminal sex offender. All that changed was a few hours went by.
billswift 17y ago
Most consent laws are by the states, and many are fairly rational about it. The biggest problem is the Federal "child pornography" laws.

warfangle 17y ago

Here, laws are written by legislation, and interpreted by judges. As judges rule on different laws, the laws build up a case history. This is why becoming a lawyer in the US (especially if you want to be a trial lawyer) is so onerous. Not only do you need to be very familiar with the laws themselves - you have to be very familiar with how the laws have been interpreted since enactment.

sili 17y ago
Is there one single repository that links each law to cases that have referenced or interpreted it?
- joeyo 17y ago
  AFAIK, no. There are the Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis databases, but I'm not sure if even they can be called completely authoritative. (And access to them is certainly not free.)
  - praptak 17y ago
    The implications are a bit disturbing. Paid access to those databases combined with case law means that if you are poor then you won't have full information about what can get you jailed.
    - abalashov 17y ago
      Yep.
    - warfangle 17y ago
      Even if you are rich, case law alone is so onerously large that perusing it and studying it would take a lifetime. I spent about ten minutes trying to find out just how large the corpus of case law is, and could find no references. Score one for the little guy, though: Google Scholar indexes (some; not sure how much of the corpus is covered) case law, as of Nov. 17, '09: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/finding-laws-that-govern-us.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/finding-laws-that-gov...

chasingsparks 17y ago

It is highly variable. I don't know anything about child pornography law, but I can safely assume that it was written at a time that could not anticipate the production of content by teenagers themselves. I clearly think that the cases listed are absurd. It is the Supreme Court's correct role to recast or reinterpret laws -- if necessary -- given recent applications.

axod 17y ago
>> "at a time that could not anticipate the production of content by teenagers themselves." At what point in the history of the universe did teenagers and kids not naturally play around with each other :/
- maxwell 17y ago
  Never, but they didn't commonly transmit evidence of it before the last decade.
  - sophacles 17y ago
    Well, other than the occasional pregnancy. :P It does bring up the question: did anyone ever get prosecuted for underage sex based on a pregnancy? I mean, there isn't much better evidence of said sex...
    - pyre 17y ago
      Even in cases where the law states that it's illegal for a 18yo to have sex with a 17yo, it's still up to the prosecutor to be sane about it. That doesn't always happen. When the girl is pregnant, she still has to give up the father for them to know who to prosecute (traditionally the boy is prosecuted in these cases; sometimes they go for the girl if she is the older one, but if she is pregnant they may view her as the 'victim'). I guess she may give that information up when declaring who the father is to the hospital though, so I don't know. Maybe it just depends on how vindictive the parents are.
- 17y ago

Periodic 17y ago

When I was in high school I was informed (and I remember because it was relevant at the time) that our councilors were legally obligated to report sexual activity only if any participant was 15 or under or if one was a minor and another was not. It was rather silly that a lot of students had a window of a few months during their senior year when their relationship could result in criminal charges, but before or after that it was fine.

sliverstorm 17y ago
It's even better when you consider, for example, a senior dating a junior starting from when they were both 15 <-> 18. Today, happy couple. Tomorrow, criminal sex offender. All that changed was a few hours went by.

billswift 17y ago

Most consent laws are by the states, and many are fairly rational about it. The biggest problem is the Federal "child pornography" laws.