General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Marriage tips from a rapist, on ABC [View all]Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)Your posts illustrate the problem with saying "There was no consent" or "Children can't consent." You've got a human being there, who's saying, "Yeah! Let's do this!" It sure looks like consent in the ordinary English sense of the word.
In fact, it would be consent in other contexts. If that same 14-year-old boy said, "Yeah! Let's do this!" about playing a pickup football game, and was injured when one of the other players tackled him, it wouldn't be an assault and battery, the way it would be if the other player had just come up to him in the schoolyard and suddenly tackled him. The difference is that he consented.
That's why the clearer way to say it is that, before she went ahead with what she wanted to do, he gave consent, but his consent was not legally effective, because sex was involved.
You also commented on the issue of severity. If one adult had sex with a child who gave an enthusiastic "Yeah!", and another adult had sex with a child who went along with it only because the adult was holding a knife and said, "Do this or I'll cut your throat," then both adults have committed rape, but most judges would give the second defendant a stiffer sentence. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that the first perpetrator would get off scot-free. It was still rape, even if it wasn't as bad as the second.