Reply #41: Cultural Differences

[OrdinaryTa]

Anyone doing what this guy did should be the object of scorn no matter the gender of his victim

Luis Polonia was traded from the Yankees, that's all. It's well known that girls throw themselves at ball players. He probably wouldn't have been convicted anyhow.

The law is more than a statement of public values; it's an attempt to influence behavior. Classifying sex with a 15 year old in the same category as sex with an 8 year old has arguably the paradoxical effect of deregulating it.

When punishments are absurdly disproportionate to the offense, crime goes under-reported. Take the example of the drinking cop. Every time a drunken cop kills somebody, there are calls to make the penalties even tougher. But tougher penalties don't have the intended result.

If we genuinely don't want adult men to have sex with teenagers, the appropriate response is to adust the penalty so that these crimes are reported.

Edit: missing word