(11/22/2005)

Statutory Rape and Abortion

85% of statutory rapes occur in someone's home

BY BOB ELLIS

DAKOTA VOICE

The U.S. Department of Justice recently released its report on statutory rape from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

Statutory rape is a general term which describes an offense that takes place when an individual, regardless of age, has consensual sex with an individual who is not old enough to legally consent to the sex. Put another way, statutory rape is sexual relations between individuals that would be legal if not for their ages. The report defines statutory rape as nonforcible sexual intercourse with a person who is younger than the statutory age of consent.

Some of the key findings of the Department of Justice report:

• In 2000, there was 1 statutory rape for every 3 forcible rapes involving a juvenile victim reported to law enforcement.

• 95% statutory rape victims were female.

• Regardless of victim gender, almost a third of victims of statutory rape were age 14 or 15.

• Of all offenders of male statutory rape, 94% were female perpetrators and 6% were male (homosexual) perpetrators

• 18% of male rapists of females were under the age of 18

• 70% of perpetrators of male statutory rape were over the age of 21, while only 45% of perpetrators of female statutory rape were over the age of 21

• The median age difference between female perpetrators and their male statutory rape victims was 9 years, while the age difference between male perpetrators and their female statutory rape victims was 6 years.

• 30% of statutory rapists were boyfriends or girlfriends, but the report does not specify the ages of these “boyfriends or girlfriends”

• 60% of statutory rapists were acquaintances

• 85% of statutory rape incidents occurred in a residence

• Arrests occurred in 42% of statutory rape cases

According to the 2003 Crime in South Dakota report, the most recent statistical analysis available for the state, 21% of all rape arrests are juveniles, with the youngest age being 13-14. However, statutory rape is not recognized under the “rape” category in the report. The age of legal consent in South Dakota is 16.

Statutory rape has traditionally been viewed as a male-on-female-victim crime. However, as numerous media reports have indicated in recent years, female-on-male-victim statutory rape is either becoming more common, or is becoming more commonly reported. Perhaps the most famous case involved 35-year-old teacher Mary Kay Laturno repeatedly having sex with a 12 year old boy.

The consequences of statutory rape not only affect the physical and emotional well being of young people, but can result in abortions without the knowledge or consent of the minor’s parents.

Life Dynamics, Inc., a pro-life organization based in Denton, TX, says Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation intentionally conceal statutory rape as they arrange abortion services for underage girls, citing a failure to comply with mandatory reporting laws of over 90%.

Life Dynamics says they conducted a covert survey, calling over 800 Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation facilities across the nation. Their caller pretended to be a 13-year-old girl who was pregnant by her 22-year-old boyfriend. The story was that she wanted to get an abortion because she and her boyfriend didn’t want her parents to learn of the sexual relationship. Life Dynamics says that the ages of the girl and her boyfriend were made perfectly clear, and that the reason they wanted an abortion was to conceal their sexual activity from her parents and the authorities. The caller also gave no indication that her parents might become abusive if they found out.

Life Dynamics said that the “overwhelming majority” of clinic workers, while acknowledging that the sexual activity was illegal, agreed to help conceal the activity. Some coached the girl on how to conceal the activity and avoid parental consent laws, even to the point of advising them to bring someone to the clinic who would look old enough to be a parent, as long as the older person said nothing to indicate they were not the girls parent.

The group’s website, www.childpredator.com, has audio clips from some of these calls which reveal clinic workers telling the girl that they don’t want to know the girl’s name or the name of her boyfriend because that would “get him in trouble.” “When you go to the doctor you shouldn’t tell him how old your boyfriend is.” “We’re not going to ask if you don’t tell us.” “Don’t bring up the age thing to us.” “I wouldn’t advise you to say anything about your boyfriend because that’s statutory rape.”

According to a Massachusetts Family Institute report, men older than 20 account for 39% of all births to girls 17 and younger in that state. The same report indicates about one million girls between 15 and 19 get pregnant each year, with around one third ending in abortion.

A 1995 report by David J. Landry and Jacqueline D. Forrest entitled "How Old Are U.S. Fathers?" says that at least half of all babies born to minor girls are fathered by adult men who are usually 3-6 years older than those girls.

Northern Hills Pregnancy Center “Stop and Think” Director for Abstinence Alisha Vincent told Dakota Voice that many girls can be at risk for statutory rape due to self-esteem issues, or a feeling that they are too grown up for boys their own age.

“The attraction for older men is that the girls want to be older and think they are more mature than they actually are,” Vincent said. “They often feel younger boys aren’t as mature.”

Vincent recommends parents look for warning signs to help prevent their children from becoming sexually involved with an older person. She suggests getting to know who their children’s friends are, who they spend time with, and where they are going at all times.

Vincent also says parents should be frank with their teenage children about the physical and emotional consequences of sexual activity, and becoming involved with an older person. “Sometimes kids just aren’t thinking about five years down the road, how something like this can affect their future, marriage, and other things.”