Understanding Statutory Rape – A Three Part Series

Understanding Statutory Rape: The Female Accused Perspective

Explore the nuances of statutory rape allegations against females, societal perspectives, and legal implications in teenage sexuality.

Part 2 The Accused Female

This article explores statutory rape allegations involving female accused individuals, contrasting them with cases involving males. While laws are consistent, motivations differ, especially regarding guardians’ concerns about male teens facing child support obligations. It highlights differing perspectives on teenage sexuality and the legal and social implications of these situations, emphasizing state protection from teenage pregnancies.

Part 1 of this series was entitled “A Warning for Sexually Active Males (and Their Parents)”. In that article, the author addressed when the male sexual partner is accused. Now, we will look at when a female is accused.

The statutory rape laws are the same no matter whether an accused is male or female. (Read Part 1 for more detail.) The intent of the law is still the same—to protect the State and taxpayers from the burden of teenage pregnancy out of wedlock. However, when a female is accused, the intent of the accusing party is different—a teenage male’s parents’ desire to protect their son from being saddled with a court order for child support before he has even acquired the education and work experience to be able to afford the standard child support calculation.

When child support is calculated the only considerations are: the earnings of each parent and the amount of time each parent spends with the child according to the custody and visitation order. Even if the noncustodial parent is unemployed, they will still be ordered to pay some amount of child support based upon the costs to administer the District Attorney’s Child Support Enforcement program.

If the noncustodial parent fails to pay child support for a certain number of months, usually three, they can have their driver’s license suspended; which, will inhibit their ability to work and lead to more in child support arrears. This can lead to arrest and sentencing to a correctional work camp.

No parent wants their male child’s life to, essentially, be over before he even graduates high school. This is a relatively new development with regards to statutory rape. Before this, a ‘shotgun’ wedding was customary on the occasion that a teenage male failed to propose to his pregnant female sexual partner on his own.

There are four interesting things about sexually active males:

1. Generally speaking, teenage males view a sexual encounter with a consenting, older female partner as a ‘badge of honor’ for themselves and their male friends–something to brag about and praise each other for.
2. If a teenage male feels vindictive about a female breaking off the sexual relationship, rather than seeking vengeance through legal means, he is more likely to engage in a sexual act with another consenting female, making sure the news gets back to the one who broke up with him. Or, in the present day and age, he might engage in revenge porn—uploading to an online platform any media he possesses of a sexual nature featuring the estranged partner.
3. The sexual partner of a consenting teenage male usually has not been lied to about his age nor fooled by a fake ID.
4. It is extremely rare for a male experiencing a midlife crisis to regret his consenting teenage sexual experience and blame a sexual partner he had during his teen years and his parents for it having occurred.

The bottom line here is: the motivation and intentions of teenage males and their parents with regards to the sexual activity of said males and the regulating of it are different than that of the teenage female and her parents. However, except for the costs of child support and custody litigation and administration, the intention of the State regarding statutory rape remains the same—protecting the State and taxpayers from the burden of teenage pregnancy out of wedlock.