In the wake of Lori Drew’s indictment, which I noted a couple of times yesterday, comes word of a case in which a 15-year-old Florida girl claims in a YouTube video that she was raped by a 23 year old, but that the DA has declined to press charges because she was only a month shy of the age of consent, which is 16, there. I should also note that according to the case file, she admitted she continued to have a sexual relationship with the “man.”
As CNN strangely puts it, you are not to miss watching “Crystal plead for help on YouTube.”
I don’t really understand the DA’s attitude in this matter. I don’t believe I have ever heard of a bartender being let off the hook for serving a minor simply because he was close to being old enough to be served. But it’s interesting how difficult DAs generally are finding it to continue to be unanswerable to the public in this age of new media, and I think that’s a good thing. The poor dears. And I’m sure that the conscientious ones, like Patterico, would agree with me.
(h/t Liz and Todd at the B-Cast)
To play devil’s advocate… the DA wasn’t there. And given a different spin on the story people here would be lamenting the way the justice system victimizes men who are then stuck with sexual offender labels for their entire lives when all they did was have consensual sex with an underage drama queen. And girls do lie about their age. And women do lie about rape.
That may well not be the case but how is the DA supposed to know that the guy has a habit of pushing young girls into having sex with him that they really don’t want to have? That maybe he choses girls so young just because they’re suggestible?
I’m also very confused about the article… they had an “ongoing” sexual relationship? Did it *end* when she was raped one month short of her 16th birthday? Had they been having sex well previous to one month before her 16th birthday? If the reason for not charging statutory rape was because she was so close to 16, what that when they started having sex and did she have sex with him afterward? Or did they start having sex then, and continued until after her 16th birthday and then ended when he forced her? I don’t think my reading comprehension is that bad. Why can’t the author make the facts given by the girl clear?
Obviously a 16 year old can be raped and from the article the girl definitely is claiming forceful rape rather than statutory rape. So why does the DA not think there was forced sex?
There’s something not normal about going on YouTube to be rape girl forever and ever I think. She seems to be really a lot embracing this as a cornerstone of her identity, but maybe there wasn’t much there before.
As near as I can tell, they started having sex when she was one month shy of 16, continued on for some time, then broke off. Now, she wants him prosecuted. Sounds to me like she’s just bitter and vindictive, though I could be wrong.
The girl definitely has a problem. I think two questions the DA should be asking are: 1) was this guy her first; and 2) if not, then who was?
The point I was trying to make, I guess, is that we can’t know.
It’s entirely possible for someone who has been having sex with someone else for quite a while to want to stop, to say no, and to be raped. A husband can rape a wife.
And the My Space thing… the article talked about how that went bad.
But we can’t know, and that’s the thing. We can’t know if chauvinism meant that the DA didn’t take her seriously. We can’t know if the DA rightly decided that it wasn’t rape or at *least* that there was no way possible that a prosecution would end in a conviction even if that person privately believes that she *was* raped.
And while we don’t ever want to suggest that girls who put themselves in bad situations are responsible for the bad behavior of those who victimize them, I think it’s prudent to point out that there are some things that make it very hard for other people to protect you.
This situation is sticky, because the truth here is unknowable.
When I was seventeen, there was a little girl (TWELVE!) who used to beg me to sleep with her. She was incredibly hot, but for some reason, I just couldn’t do it (Despite my animalistic ravings here). And don’t get me wrong – the thought of her looks still melts my knees.
So someone else woung up in huge trouble for doing what I wouldn’t.
Probably one of my only sane decisions in the “opposite sex” department in my life.
I can just picture this little girl on YouTube (if it existed then) if I had given in, and then decided I wanted no more. Sometimes you have to use your big head. A YouTube video is proof of nothing.
The laws against statutory rape need to contain a “reasonable man” standard. If a reasonable man would have believed the woman was of age, then he isn’t guilty of a crime. We have such “reasonable person” standards throughout the law, and they work just fine.
The bottom line is this: women lie about rape and young women deceive about their age to get sex. Men need more protection under the law.
Women are systematically trained to believe that one tear, one tantrum, one appeal to motherhood will get them what they want. Sadly, it usually does.
Men need to grow a pair and learn to say “no, this is your fault.”