Letter published in Psychology Today

[_MeDotOrg]

It's very simple and very logical.

If you are both under 18, okay. If you are both over 18, okay. But if you are both under 18 and you don't share the same birthday, there is an area of trouble. If one partner turns 18 before the other, I guess sex becomes technically illegal until the other partner turns 18.

I was sexually active before my 18th birthday, and my girlfriend was about 6 months older than I was, so for 6 months she was a statutory rapist? If my girlfriend were 6 months younger than I was, would I be guilty of the same crime? If my girlfriend was 30, the answer could be considered yes, but at what exact point does the difference in chronological age begin to matter with respect to the law? It don't think there's a clear line.

[_subgenius]

can someone clarify the "from a previous marriage" statement in the OP? Dude was in sexual relationship with a 16yo while married? before marrying another?
How Old Was He?

And can some of you argue the rule instead of the exception?

[_cinepro]

can someone clarify the "from a previous marriage" statement in the OP? Dude was in sexual relationship with a 16yo while married? before marrying another?
How Old Was He?

That is obviously some very important information for most people, and the fact that she leaves out how old Mark was when he was having consensual sex with her when she was 16 is a glaring (and I suspect purposeful) omission.

The article is from 2010, and there is no "Mark Perk" on the registry anymore, so hopefully their lives have gone on and everything is okay.

https://www.isp.state.il.us/sor/offenderlist.cfm

[Guest]

can someone clarify the "from a previous marriage" statement in the OP? Dude was in sexual relationship with a 16yo while married? before marrying another?
How Old Was He?

That is obviously some very important information for most people, and the fact that she leaves out how old Mark was when he was having consensual sex with her when she was 16 is a glaring (and I suspect purposeful) omission.

using the information the letter writer gives, the records indicate that he was 35 when it happened, she was 14. 35 to 14 is a huge age difference.

edited to correct ages.

[_DoubtingThomas]

using the information the letter writer gives, the records indicate that he was 41 when it happened. 41 to 16 is a huge age difference.

True, but 16 is the age in some US states. How did you come up with the 41 conclusion?
So we can all agree it was morally wrong, but I don't think the guy deserves to be punished for the rest of his life. Consensual sex isn't next to murder.

[_DoubtingThomas]

It's very simple and very logical.

If you are both under 18, okay. If you are both over 18, okay. But if you are both under 18 and you don't share the same birthday, there is an area of trouble. If one partner turns 18 before the other, I guess sex becomes technically illegal until the other partner turns 18.

I was sexually active before my 18th birthday, and my girlfriend was about 6 months older than I was, so for 6 months she was a statutory rapist? If my girlfriend were 6 months younger than I was, would I be guilty of the same crime? If my girlfriend was 30, the answer could be considered yes, but at what exact point does the difference in chronological age begin to matter with respect to the law? It don't think there's a clear line.

You make excellent points. There is such so many assumptions. I wish medical doctors would draw such line, not stupid politicians.

I do wonder you said "If my girlfriend was 30, the answer could be considered yes,"
How is an 18 year old different than a 30 year old? Are older genitals more dangerous? I honestly don't understand.

[_DoubtingThomas]

How Old Was He?

He is an adult. The guy paid for his crime in prison for having sex with someone under the legal age.

What difference does it make how old his d*** was? If his d*** was 19, 25, 30, or 40 years old it really makes no difference in the eyes of the law.

[_Lemmie]

A little background on the people in DT's Psychology Today 2010 blog entry:

Chicago Tribune Editorial:
Let's separate the misguided from monsters
February 24, 2005 | By Eric Zorn.

...I heard a somewhat similar tale from Kristin Perk of Crestwood, who said she was just shy of her 15th birthday in 1998 when she began a sexual relationship with her adult male guitar teacher.
"I pretty much came on to him," she said. "Then it turned into a real romance."

A real illegal romance, of course. Her parents found out and called police, who arrested the teacher, then 35. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sex-abuse charges and began a 10-year period in which he has had to register as a child sex offender and stay away from places where children congregate.

The teen's parents sent her to school in California, but she and the teacher kept in touch.

"Older people and younger people do fall in love," said the man, recalling that Elvis Presley's infatuation with his wife Priscilla began when she was 14 and that Jerry Lee Lewis' third wife was only 13.

The girl returned here when she turned 18, and, in March of 2003, she and the man, Mark Perk, were married by the same Cook County circuit judge who had handled his criminal case.
The Perks now have a toddler. They lived in the city until last fall, when police found him living within 500 feet of an elementary school and ordered him to move.

Perk found extra legal trouble--and ended up in an unflattering WLS-Ch. 7 investigative story--when he protested his ongoing status as a child sex offender by wearing a disguise for a photograph that police posted to an Internet database.

He said he has lost five jobs and been repeatedly threatened by vigilantes who learn he's a child sex offender and lump him in with the molesters who haunt playgrounds.

To say that he doesn't belong there is not to say that he was right to have had sex with a girl who was so young, no matter who came on to whom.

It's to say that these stories show that we need to work harder to sort drooling pedophiles from the horndogs who break the law. There's already enough bad judgment out there without us adding to it.

Note that he was a 35 year old teacher and the girl was his 14 year old student when the girl's parents called the police. He plrd guilty to a misdemeanor and his sentence of community service also included a 10 year stint on the Sex Offender Registry.

[Guest]

Note that he was a 35 year old teacher and the girl was his 14 year old student when the girl's parents called the police. He plrd guilty to a misdemeanor and his sentence of community service also included a 10 year stint on the Sex Offender Registry.

There is no way a 35 year old teacher would only get a misdemeanor and community service for sex with a 14 year old, we are not in Denmark, Germany, or Norway. Getting a misdemeanor and community service is inconsistent with everything I am reading in The War on Sex Book.

According to psychology today she was 16 years old. We can all agree it was immoral, but does the guy really deserve a lifetime of severe punishment? According to your own Chicago Tribune

He said he has lost five jobs and been repeatedly threatened by vigilantes who learn he's a child sex offender and lump him in with the molesters who haunt playgrounds.

According to War on Sex Book

"A quarter of convicted sex offenders are minors, eleven to seventeen years old; 16 percent are under twelve...What did these young criminals do? My own research suggests that the answer is not much. Some engaged in consensual sex - mutual masturbation and blowjobs mostly - with teens or pubescent kids a little younger than themselves. Some viewed online images of other naked ...... Like their adult counterparts, many end up on the registry for "indecent liberties with a minor"

[_Lemmie]

using the information the letter writer gives, the records indicate that he was 41 when it happened. 41 to 16 is a huge age difference.

True, but 16 is the age in some US states. How did you come up with the 41 conclusion?
So we can all agree it was morally wrong, but I don't think the guy deserves to be punished for the rest of his life. Consensual sex isn't next to murder.

see my post with the full report, he was her 35 year old teacher, she was his 14 year old student when her parents called the police.