No law is ever going to be perfect, but perfection is the enemy good here.
It’s pretty well researched, understood, and established that your average 9 year old has so much more critical mental development they still need to undergo than your average 18 year old in order to become functional adults, regardless of what actual official age we define that as being.
Yes, some 18 year olds may still be taken advantage of, abused, hurt etc., but those 18 year olds, on average, will have a much better chance of defending themselves from and overcoming the damage done by an abusive “suitor” than the average 9 year old would. That is both physically and mentally.
In this case, I think it is a good albeit imperfect law as it serves the majority of the people and cases. Of course there will still be those outliers it fails to protect, but it is still a “net good”.
No law is ever going to be perfect, but perfection is the enemy good here.
It’s pretty well researched, understood, and established that your average 9 year old has so much more critical mental development they still need to undergo than your average 18 year old in order to become functional adults, regardless of what actual official age we define that as being.
Yes, some 18 year olds may still be taken advantage of, abused, hurt etc., but those 18 year olds, on average, will have a much better chance of defending themselves from and overcoming the damage done by an abusive “suitor” than the average 9 year old would. That is both physically and mentally.
In this case, I think it is a good albeit imperfect law as it serves the majority of the people and cases. Of course there will still be those outliers it fails to protect, but it is still a “net good”.