Lippert Tonya, Clary Max, Bleoaja Cayla, Walsh Wendy A, Jones Lisa M
Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, OR, USA.
American Chamber of Commerce Uganda, Kampala, Uganda.
J Interpers Violence. 2022 May;37(9-10):NP7984-NP8005. doi: 10.1177/0886260520975807. Epub 2020 Nov 27.
Statutory rape laws are intended to protect adolescents from harm as a result of sexual activity with older individuals. In this pursuit, many, but far from all, states' statutory rape laws differentiate younger and older offenders. In effect, many of these states differentiate offenders who are 21 and older from those who are under 21. It is unknown, however, whether and how the dynamics of statutory rape vary depending on the age of the offender. To explore the contribution of offender age to the dynamics of statutory rape, data were collected from the records of 105 statutory rape cases referred to a child abuse assessment center over a 63-month period. Records included detailed reports on case history and victims' family history, mental health and health-risking behaviors, medical examination results, and forensic interview summaries. Cases of offenders1.Because these cases are under investigation, "offenders" here refers to "suspects." For ease of reading, we use "offenders" to be consistent with prior research terminology. under 21 were compared to the cases of offenders 21 years and older. Compared to cases of younger offenders, cases of offenders 21 years and older more often involved slightly older adolescent victims. Independent of age, victims with offenders 21 and over compared with offenders under 21 were over six times as likely to have a prior history of a high, versus low, number of psychosocial problems and were seven times more likely to experience multiple forms of coercion versus no coercion by the offender. Findings suggest that statutory rape prevention, policy and response strategies should consider the critical ways that case characteristics and victims differ according to this key offender attribute.
法定强奸罪法律旨在保护青少年免受与年长者进行性活动所带来的伤害。在这一追求中，许多（但远非所有）州的法定强奸罪法律区分了年龄较小和较大的犯罪者。实际上，这些州中的许多州将21岁及以上的犯罪者与21岁以下的犯罪者区分开来。然而，尚不清楚法定强奸罪的动态情况是否以及如何因犯罪者年龄而异。为了探讨犯罪者年龄对法定强奸罪动态情况的影响，我们从一个儿童虐待评估中心在63个月期间转介的105起法定强奸罪案件记录中收集了数据。记录包括关于案件历史和受害者家族病史、心理健康及健康风险行为、医学检查结果以及法医访谈摘要的详细报告。1. 由于这些案件正在调查中，这里的“犯罪者”指“嫌疑人”。为便于阅读，我们使用“犯罪者”以与先前的研究术语保持一致。将21岁以下犯罪者的案件与21岁及以上犯罪者的案件进行了比较。与年轻犯罪者的案件相比，21岁及以上犯罪者的案件中，受害者往往是年龄稍大的青少年。与21岁以下犯罪者相比，21岁及以上犯罪者的受害者在独立于年龄因素的情况下，有高数量心理社会问题史而非低数量心理社会问题史的可能性高出六倍多，并且经历多种形式胁迫而非未受犯罪者胁迫的可能性高出七倍。研究结果表明，法定强奸罪的预防、政策及应对策略应考虑到根据这一关键犯罪者属性，案件特征和受害者存在差异的关键方式。
