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Gender Bias in Statutory Rape Cases

By Corey Rayburnyung

A helpful reader pointed me to an interesting article in the Daily Beast about gender bias in statutory rape cases:After a 17-year-old boy had sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend, he was charged with a felony for statutory rape. When a 17-year-old girl in the same town commited the same crime, she was charged with far less. Was the boy the victim of gender bias?Alan Jepsen was playing videogames at his home in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, when the cops came knocking on his door. He was handcuffed in front of his sister and thrown in jail. In the words of his attorney, Jeffrey Purnell, ?This child, this 17-year-old high-school kid, had to spend a week in jail?they locked him up and they put him in jail with grown-ups.?His crime: Having sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sex Crimes on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).