B-3. Convictions

Boy, 15, gets 60 years for  St. Louis County sex attack of girl, 6 - William C. Lhotka - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11/15/2007

A judge sentenced to 60 years in prison this morning a teenager who had pleaded guilty of kidnapping, beating and sexually assaulting a neighbor in Spanish Lake on Nov. 11, 2005, when he was 13 and she was 6.

400 teens arrested for flirting in Cairo - From correspondents in Cairo, Agence France-Presse & The Australian news, November 21, 2008

Egyptian police have rounded up hundreds of teenage boys in Cairo in a day-long crackdown on sexual harassment. 
"We have arrested a large number of boys who were flirting with girls," Cairo's police director Faruq Lashin said. 
About 400 teenagers, aged between 15 and 17, were arrested on Wednesday and will be brought before a judge, he said.

Nearly 300 under-age sex offenders are logged in Tayside - This Is North Scotland, October 29, 2007

Almost 300 under-age sex offenders have been logged in Tayside in the last three years, it emerged yesterday. 
These shocking figures by under 16-year-olds included 42 rapes and 179 lewd and indecent acts. [...]
"Ministers have made it clear that they take the issue of sexual offenders very seriously, regardless of age."

Parents of Young Sex Offenders Say Arizona's Laws Too Strict - Doug Ramsey, KTAR, October 30, 2006

A panel of lawmakers and law enforcers is looking into the touchy subject of youthful sex offenders. 
They're hearing from parents who say when they try to get help for their children, the kids end up being branded for life. [... Cases - 13-year-young boy convicted as an adult - and more ...] 
At one point, the panel was told there are 100,000 underage Arizona children who are sexually active and under current law, they could all be charged with sex crimes. 
Mesa lawmaker Karen Johnson, who chairs the committee, says in their zeal to punish child molesters, the legislature has gone too far.

Mother of sex offender speaks out - Melissa Shriver, khqa.com, April 24, 2008

Tonight we have a story every parent and teenager should see. We sat down with a mother of a registered sex offender who says a bad decision as a teenager left her son with life-long consequences.

Teenage sex offender is no predator - Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald & qctimes.com, April 3, 2007

[...] A New Year's Eve party in adjacent hotel rooms, a cache of liquor and marijuana, and at least two girls servicing at least six boys, orally and vaginally, while a video camera ran. 
Three years later, G[...] W[...] is a convicted child molester serving 10 years without parole for what happened that night. [...] The "child molester" was 17 at the time of the crime. Second, the "child" was 15. Third, she willingly performed oral sex on him. In fact, she initiated it. 
[...] becoming a registered sex offender, having that follow him the rest of his life, being forbidden even to live in the same house with his younger sister. [...]
Yes, he did a stupid and ugly thing. But he did not abuse a child.

Overzealous Law Enforcement Strikes Again - Terry L. Mitchell, American Chronicle, January 19, 2009

Recently, six teenagers at a Pennsylvania high school were caught participating in a new fad called 'sexting.' [...] In this particular case, three girls had been taking and sending nude photographs of themselves to three boys. Besides being suspended from school, these teens, incredibly enough, now face much more serious consequences. 
The girls are being charged with manufacturing and disseminating child pornography. The boys face charges of possession of child porn. All six of these students are minors, under the age of 18. [...]

If convicted of the charges brought against them, these six teens would likely be stigmatized for life. Each would be labeled with our modern-day scarlet letter - sex offender. [...] All of this after possibly serving prison sentences. And for what? The girls for being stupid and the boys for being - well - boys! What a heavy price to pay for such 'offenses'!

It's as if we are living in some silly Islamic theocracy instead of the United States of America. This is the kind of overzealous law enforcement that often makes the U.S. the laughing stock of the rest of the civilized world. [...]

Sex hysteria - A perfectly awful example - freestudents.blogspot.com, January 14, 2009

Police in Greenburg Pennsylvania have arrested six teens and charged them the crime of "child pornography." NO, they weren't forcing small children into sexual acts. Three teenage girls sent nude, or semi-nude photos of themselves by email to their boyfriends. (So three girls and three boys.) All six are now deemed, by the morons who wrote the laws, to be child predators involved with "child pornography." [...]
Once again I emphasize that these laws are not protecting our teens from "predators" they are a direct threat to life and liberty of our teens. These laws need to be reformed, and I suspect mostly abolished, immediately.