Romeo, Juliet, and Statutory Rape

Abstract

Statutory rape is an important yet understudied topic. There is broad public support for the prosecution of older adults who engage in sexual relationships with minors regardless of perceptions of consent by either party. However, some scholars worry that expansive definitions within these laws have led to the widespread involvement of the justice system in the lives of similarly aged teenagers engaging in relatively normal sexual behavior, so called "Romeo and Juliet" liaisons. This, in turn, has called into question the legitimacy of national policies, such as sex offender registration, because of the presumption that registries are likely filled with these kinds of cases which may not represent the intent of legislatures and the public. Despite the importance of these debates, there is little research assessing the prevalence of Romeo and Juliet cases in official crime statistics or that analyze differences in characteristics of statutory rape as a function of victim-offender age differences. Drawing on more than 20 years of police data from over 6,000 police departments in the United States, this study found statutory rape cases were rare and Romeo and Juliet cases were even rarer. Multivariate models showed several distinctions between statutory rape cases as a function of the age differences between victim and offender. Of note, the odds that additional forms of sexual aggression occurred in the incident grew as the age difference expanded.

Child sex abuse images and exploitation materials

“…Age-difference laws usually specify an age gap (e.g. a two to four-year age gap) but varied greatly as Bierie & Budd (2018) observed in a review of US federal and state laws. However, consensually shared or 'stolen' sexualized images distributed via various apps may inadvertently or otherwise enhance and facilitate online CEM (Wolak, Finkelhor, Walsh, & Treitman, et al 2018).…”

Money, Status, Love, and Death: Sexual Relations With Considerably Older Persons in African Societies—A Systematic Review

“…Sexual relations between adults and minors are illegal in many countries. The age and age gaps that determine its illegality may vary, but the official and public consensus is that it is a crime, regardless of whether the minors involved have experienced such relations as consensual (Bierie & Budd, 2018; Hodgkinson, Lewin, Chang, Beers, & Silber, 2014). The age of consent in most Western countries is 16, and a minimum age difference between the older and younger parties to the relationship is required for it to qualify as statutory rape (Glosser, Gardiner, & Fishman, 2004).…”

La normalización de los delitos sexuales en Costa Rica: una cuantificación

“…El argumento subyacente consiste en que una persona menor a la edad establecida estatutariamente no es capaz de comprender todas las implicaciones que acarrea un acto sexual y, por tanto, es incapaz de tomar una decisión libre y razonada (Frank, Camp & Boutcher, 2010, p. 875). Esto la hace, a su vez, más vulnerable a la manipulación por parte de personas adultas (Bierie & Budd, 2018), exponiéndola así a peligros sobre su integridad e individualidad. Quien mantiene relaciones sexuales con una persona menor de edad estaría, entonces, abusando de ella, al aprovecharse de su incapacidad para consentir, aun cuando no medie un acto violento de por medio.…”

“…Quien mantiene relaciones sexuales con una persona menor de edad estaría, entonces, abusando de ella, al aprovecharse de su incapacidad para consentir, aun cuando no medie un acto violento de por medio. Actualmente, estas leyes se promueven como un mecanismo para la protección de las personas menores de edad contra la explotación sexual (Bierie & Budd, 2018;Unicef, 2018), particularmente las mujeres, de forma que se enmarcan en un discurso universal de derechos humanos. Sin embargo, este enfoque es reciente y no corresponde a la evolución histórica en Occidente de la edad de consentimiento, en general.…”

“…Sin embargo, un estudio estadístico realizado por Bierie y Budd (2018) con información policial recabada durante veinte años en más de 60 000 instancias policiales en Estados Unidos muestra que la violación estatutaria está lejos de ser la norma, pues representa apenas el 5% del total de crímenes sexuales. Y los casos Romeo y Julieta son aún menores, representando apenas el 0,8% del total de crímenes sexuales (Bierie & Budd, 2018). Sin embargo, los casos de violación estatutaria presentan características típicas de violencia que deben regularse y castigarse: en primer lugar, la probabilidad de observar formas adicionales de agresión sexual se incrementa conforme aumenta la diferencia de edad entre la víctima y el ofensor.…”