• Lyman (2019) Chapters 11-15

Consider the following factual situations obtained from a criminal complaint:

• Wendy Whitaker is a registered sex offender because, at age 17, she had engaged in a single consensual act of oral sex with a 15-year-old boy. For this one act, committed ten years ago, the now 26-year-old Ms. Whitaker and her husband have been forced from one home and now will likely be forced from another due to a potential Georgia law that would make it illegal for any convicted sex offender from living within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop.
• Joseph Linaweaver was 16 when he had a single consensual oral sex act with a 14-year-old girl, and he is nowa registered sex offender.
• Janet Allison is a convicted sex offender (convicted of party to a crime of statutory rape and child molestation) because she did not prevent her 15-year-old daughter from being sexually active.

Answer the following questions:

• At what age is it legal to engage in sexual activity in your state? What types of sexual activity?
• Growing up, have you known anyone that had sexual activity before the legal age? Do you consider this activityillegal? Is it a misdemeanor? A felony?
• Have statutory laws kept up with society's norms in the age of consent?
• How does this affect how the police conduct investigations or how the courts make such decisions?
• Do you believe an age differentiation should be included in statutory rape laws?