Katz, we usually agree on just about anything, but I can't agree with you here. Telling young adults not to have sex has never proven to be effective. An 18 year old and 15 year old is not the same as a 25 year old and a 12 year old. Just for the sake of argument, lets say that when you were 17.5 years old you were attracted to someone who was 15. I know you can say you wouldn't allow that to happen, but for the sake of argument let's say it did happen. A half a year later you turn 18 and all of a sudden a relationship that was A-OK is now forbidden pedophilia. There is a gray area here where black and white laws just don't do justice. Judges should be able to exercise "judgement" in gray areas. No tolerance laws make judges into proclaimers who simply spout the penalty because they have no choice in the matter.
Why is it that we don't expect young people to have any control over their biological urges. There have always been biological urges and those who can't control them. The difference is now, they aren't expected to control them.
A 17 year old boy who had sex with a 15 year old girl would get the absolute shit kicked out of him if there were no criminal penalties. It isn't that at 17.5 the conduct was AOK. It was never AOK. We just expect a level of maturity from someone 18 that we don't expect from someone 17. If they don't have that level of maturity, why not? Something in the maturation process is wrong.
There has never been a law that prevented any kind of conduct, from shoplifting to murder, all laws are ineffective. We end up with zero tolerance laws because of judicial discretion. The judges discretioned all penalties away.
We have here a young woman who is attracted to underage girls. She's not attracted to women, but underage girls. One would think that at the very least, Kaitlyn's own parents would have noticed the relationship, knew their daughter was gay, and started educating her as to appropriate behavior. The age difference of four years might not be important in ten more years but it is now and 14 year old are still guilty of molesting 10 year olds and 8 year olds victimize four year olds. I guarantee you that parents seeing their ten year old hanging around with a 14 year old would have alarm bells ringing.
Is our culture truly this sick, depraved and degenerate that we cannot even recognize predatory behavior? Excuse it when we see it? Is that how bad we've become?
Why ask, the answer is yes.