frcontrib

Hello everyone,

I've noticed that there usually tends to be a lot of debate with this particular subject and it would be interesting to see what your opinions may be on this...In the media, it seems as though whenever a woman commits a sex crime there tends to be somewhat of a bias and typically are judged differently than a male offender....This seems most evident when much of the media focus is on the woman's appearance, such as how "attractive, beauty" she may be, whereas a male offender is portrayed as a being a "disgusting, predator"....Has anyone else noticed this?....I came across an article which highlights many of these sex cases where female teachers have affairs with their students and in many these cases their sentencing penalties are much less severe in comparison to a male offender who commits the same crime...Is it just me, or is there somewhat of an imbalance in our legal system when it comes to gender?

Here is the full story & Photos: Female Teachers Sleeping with Students

Does anyone else have an opinion or point of view on this?...And do you agree that our legal system & society has some kind double standard?

phattonez

Niiiice.

But seriously, yes, there's a disparity. It's because people view boys and girls differently. If you're a male, sex is normal. If you're a female, you are abused or are a slut. Total double standard (though I exaggerated it right now).

__________________
" Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. " - Matthew 5:44-45
"Our politicians do not purchase votes, the advocate 'social' programs. It comes to the same thing." - Frank Chodorov

rivrrat

There absolutely is a double standard, in two ways. One is the manner in which society seems to think it's okay and normal for a boy to want/have sex, but it's not okay or normal for a girl to.

The second is how women are immediately seen as victims in just about everything. They're seen as weak and preyed upon.

__________________

frcontrib

I think your right...it seems as a society the perception of how men & women are viewed is different...even though based on the facts & law we would hope that everyone is treated/judged equally without bias regardless of race, religion, & based on this topic GENDER.

Aunt Spiker

This type of double standard has been ruled to be acceptable because "a law that punishes males but not females for statutory rape is permissible; men and women are not "similarly situated" with respect to sexual relations."

I think it's ridiculous, "similarly situated" might be applicable to financial and social issues, but it shouldn't be taken into account for things like statutory rape.

This excerpt via google has some interesting info regarding the legal issues:
Jailbait: the politics of statutory ... - Google Books

__________________

jallman

So how do you account for the way male teachers are sentenced when having sex with male students? If they are both males, then they have to be the most "similarly situated" in regards to sexual relations.

rivrrat

Because no boy wants to have sex with a man, duh. He tried to turn the boy gay and that's an even worse offense than all the others!!! OMGTHEYTURNOURCHILDRENZGAY!

__________________

Aunt Spiker

Yeah, the "similarly situated" thing makes no sense to me - it shouldn't be applied toward sex-crimes, in my opinion, it's unjust and gives preferrential treatment (in this case - preferential punishment) based on gender when rulings should be baesd on the CRIME not the offenders GENDER.

I have serious problems with that - but they claim it's legitimate. *shrug* I don't get it.

__________________

frcontrib

I agree with you...It amazes me on how common this really is.

Toothpicvic

Nope. I think it's a totally fair double standard. How many 15 year old guys do you think actually cried "rape" in any of these cases (except for maybe the 2 or 3 butt-ugly teachers on that list)? I wish I'd be that luck in high school.

If anything we're way too obsessed with "sex crimes" that aren't that a big deal (like an 18 year old boy being charged with "child porn" for having a topless pic of his 16 year old GF on his phone). While at the same time, we have judges letting actual child rapists off scott free because the judge decides "he shouldn't be punished for a disease".