Bill on consensual teen sex draws fire
Toolbox
By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau - Published: February 21, 2009
MONTPELIER – Senate lawmakers on Friday quickly scuttled a bill that would have relaxed the state's statutory rape laws in the case of young teens.
Prosecutors and victims' rights advocates panned the proposed legislation, which would have allowed consensual sex between 13- and 17-year-old children.
"I've reviewed this bill and, in my opinion, it would be a monumental mistake to pass this bill as it stands now," Mary Morrissey, a deputy state's attorney in Chittenden County, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday. "What it basically does is license juniors and seniors in high school to monitor the outgoing sixth- and seventh-graders and see who's pretty."
Vermont in 2006 changed its statutory rape laws to protect the so-called "Romeo and Juliet" encounters between consenting teens. Previously, Vermont had set the blanket age of consent at 16, which put a 17-year-old boy at risk of prosecution for having sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend. The 2006 revision allowed teenagers as young as 15 to consent to sex, provided the partner was within three years of their age.
The new bill, introduced by Democratic Sens. Hinda Miller and Jeannette White, sought to lower the age of consent to 13, provided the partner was within four years of their age.
Victims rights advocates said the provision could expose vulnerable young girls to exploitation.
"There's a significant inequality in the balance of power, and in life experience and ability to think about consequences," said Jennifer Poehlman of the Vermont Center for Crime Victims Services. "I'm not talking about sexual maturity, but about differences in cognitive ability between a 17-year-old and a 13-year-old."
White, who first attempted to have the provision included as an amendment to the Legislature's omnibus sex-crimes bill, said she heard from constituents whose 19-year-old sons had been prosecuted for consensual sexual activity with 15-year-old girls.
"I do feel that we have made criminals out of children who should not be criminals," White said. "I've had mothers of sons, mothers of daughters, fathers, and kids themselves come to me and say this is a huge issue."
Miller said Vermont's laws need to evolve alongside cultural mores, and that children are now becoming sexualized at much younger ages.
"My concern, and one of reasons I continue to try to bring these subjects up, is I think we have to deal with the world the way it is and not the way we want it to be," Miller said. "We live in a culture that continually becomes sexually more and more charged."
Morrissey said instances of teenage boys being prosecuted for consensual sex with fellow teens is exceedingly rare. When prosecutors do press statutory rape charges, according to Morrissey, it's often because they believe the sex was not consensual, and the statutory rape clause is the easiest mechanism to obtain a conviction.
The existing statutory rape law carries a 20-year maximum sentence.
"If anything, we have cases where we have angry parents because we won't bring cases where 14-year-old girls are having consensual sex," Morrissey said. "No one wants to make sex offenders out of teenagers who are engaging in consensual sexual behavior."
After hearing the testimony, committee chairman Sen. Richard Sears pronounced the proposed legislation "effectively dead." He said language in the bill that would require the state to educate teens about the state's statutory rape laws could be incorporated into separate legislation.
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