• Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Yeah, but even statutory rape doesn’t distinguish enough.
      If some 30 year old person ties down a fighting 5 year old and… straight to the gallows. If a 18.5 year old has consenual sex with a 17.9 year old, the gallows seem a bit extreme. But they are both statutory rape technically. Better terminology would make it easier to assign even harsher penalties than are already assigned for the base case. And they could remove some of the wiggle room it gives judges to be lenient when they shouldn’t be.