The Idaho Senate will vote on whether or not to extend Idaho’s age-of-consent law to allow teenagers to have consensual sex without breaking state law. The Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee unanimously supported the proposed law change after hearing opposition from prosecutors.
“Right now we have a statute that can literally destroy the life of a young man,” said Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. His legislation to amend Idaho’s rape laws would allow 16-year-old and 17-year-old teenagers to have consensual sex with partners who are up to three years older than they are. Hill said 35 states, including Idaho, all have age-of-consent laws set at 16. “Laws that have the potential to destroy the lives of innocent people need to be changed.” The state’s forced rape laws would not be changed.
Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins Jr., president of the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association, spoke against extending the law. “Non-coerced contact between two adolescents is typically not charged without some aggravating factor,” he said. Watkins said that changing the law would close a window of opportunity for prosecutors. Watkins said that in many incidents, prosecutors have insufficient evidence to charge young men with forcible rape or other abusive behavior. “What we look for in those types of circumstances is exploitive behavior,” he said. He added that his office used discretion earlier this week not to prosecute a case of statutory rape. “I like the statute where it is. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to turn the 48 percent of juveniles that are sexually active into criminals.”
Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, asked why prosecutors should have the discretion to decide the fate of a young man. “A young victim may be in a relationship where consent might not easily be refused, where you are short on the forcible rape statute,” Watkins responded.
Ada County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Fisher said the current law protects wayward young girls who may not have parents looking out for them. “Why make our law less protective just because Washington or Oregon has?” She said prosecutors are clearly using discretion properly. An Idaho Department of Education survey from 2009 showed that 48 percent of high school seniors have had sexual intercourse. “If 48 percent of high school students are having sex, 48 percent of them are not being prosecuted,” Fisher said.
Renee McKenzie, the wife of Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, who described herself as conservative Republican mother, supports expanding the consent law. She said she’s works for her husband’s criminal law practice, which is defending several cases of statutory rape. “These boys’ lives are ending, even before they’ve begun,” she said. “I don’t think we should condone sexual acts between teens. But sending teens boys to prison isn’t the answer either.”
Read IdahoReporter.com’s first story on Hill’s change to state rape laws here. The text of the legislation is available here.
Cobb County Adult Detention Center and Juvenile Detention Center in Marietta, Georgia has a lot of inmates that are teenagers involved in consensual sexual relations. Majority are Black Teen Males ages 16 and up arrested over promiscuous White Teen Females ages 14 and up. The teen females should be incarcerated too! Actually it is rediculous to arrest teenagers over non-forcible rape cases. These Statutory cases need to take the word rape from the case. When you think of “rape” you imagine by force, against the alleged victim’s will. Teenagers are allowed to date and with dating some are engaging in kissing, heavy petting, and lead to sexual acts. Why is the legal system pimping teenagers from mutual consensual acts? This is an American Tragedy! Shame on the Criminal Justice System!
[...] committee, the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association opposed the change to statutory rape law. Read IdahoReporter.com’s past coverage of the proposed change here and here. The text of Hill’s legislation is available [...]
I had a boyfriend who had just turned 18 and I 16 at the time, and he ended up cheating on me and then going to jail because the girl did not want to be grounded for being late for her curfue so she cried rape to her mom and because they had just had sex the rape test came through. things like this are not right. He ended up spending some time in prison and through out this the girl ended up feeling bad so she told the police the truth about how he didnt rape her that it was consensual sex. they should make it so this can not happen its not right!
As a 17 year girl I have had many issues with the statuory rape law. It rarely protects young girls like it is meant to, and in fact often puts them in bad situations. When an underage girl is sleeping with a boy who is over the age of consent she often feels that it is her responsibility to make sure that he does not become a victim of this law. In order to keep the overage boy they are sleeping with safe from this law girls will often lie about their relationship, and terminate pregnancies if they feel that the father could get in trouble. If you ask me, this law puts young girls in bad situations much more often that it protects them.
i think it should be at least four years apart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like a fifteen and a nineteen year old… whats wrong with that?
My grandson is at Cottonwood now because of consensual sex with a 15 year old girl he was 18. He was charged with statutory rape. He will suffer for this the rest of his life. It seems so ridiculous when it happens all the time. Only the unlucky ones pay such a huge price.
The statatory rape laws feed into the Megan’s Law creates Invaluable human beings, The leparcy of our time all at the tax payers expense. The laws were created to feed the public trouth and now the laws are robbing the public because of the expenses to incarcerrate, follow the regestrant and label the labelled as depressed or non fuctionable which makes them eligable for Social secutiry benifits because of the high number of suicides and attempted suicudes. Shouldn’t the tax payers be doing something better with there money.