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July 03, 2008

Boys still held to different standard than girls

The math teacher (Kelsey Peterson) from Nebraska who fled to Mexico with a 13 year old boy so that she could have sex with him pled guilty as part of a deal to will allow her to spend less time in prison.

So far so good. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Peterson's attorney, James Martin Davis, has publicly questioned the boy's birth certificate. Davis said the boy was likely at least 16, and that he was the aggressor.

Amy Peck, an attorney for the boy and his family, said that suggestion was disgusting.

"He was a 12-year-old boy and the defendant knew it," Peck said Wednesday. "The result of this lower plea could have been obtained without playing to every racial stereotype that there is."

In fairness it needs to be pointed out that lawyers and family members of male sexual predators frequently use the same excuse - "she was the aggressor." But of course whomever was the aggressor is utterly irrelevant to whether there was informed consent.

Is it true that boys tend to be more sexually aggressive than girls? Abso-friggin-lutely. But it's a red herring. Young teenage boys are no more mature enough to give informed consent than young teenage girls are. In fact, I'd argue that, aggressivity aside, young teenage girls tend to be slightly more emotionally mature than their male peers. Not enough to give informed consent to have sex with an adult (or anyone else). But they do seem ever so slightly more mature at that age. I base that on both my own experiences as a young teenage boy and as the father of two girls.

At the end of the day it is the adult in these adult/child sexual liasons who bears ultimate responsibility by virtue of being the ONLY person involved who has the capacity to make an informed decision. Whomever was the aggressor doesn't change that reality one iota.

Posted by Kevin at July 3, 2008 10:51 AM