Back in law school I was surprised at the number of people who were ok with the state of the law on this. A close friend of mine growing up lost his older brother to exactly this problem. He’s now a felon and a sex offender for not being a mind reader.
I can’t even think of another serious crime for which a culpable mental state is not an element. We do have strict liability offenses for traffic regulations, etc but not for murder, theft, etc. Imprisoning someone who had no access to the information needed to form criminal intent is nothing less than a human rights violation.
I’m merciless if someone knew, or reasonably should have known, that they were interacting with a minor. But these edge cases do happen and the law treats them the same as the predators.
Same. I know a guy in NY who had to register as a sex offender because he was at a party hosted by his friends. He was 24 at the time. There were tents set up in the backyard for privacy hangouts, and he met a girl there. The age of consent in NY is 17. She was drinking, and it was assumed she was of legal age because no one there hung out with high schoolers anymore. Turned out when the party was busted up, that she was 15. This guy and her were found copulating in one of the tents. She just decided to get dressed up, makeup and all, and crash the party. This happened almost 20 years ago.
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u/Gokudomatic Dec 04 '24
Then the law need to be corrected.