Emotions also run high when some suggest changing the age of consent to accommodate today's more relaxed social norms, as was mentioned in a story in Sunday's New York Times that reviewed recent teacher-student cases. The story was accompanied by a photograph of teacher, Pamela Rogers Turner, 28, who was sentenced to nine months in jail for having sex with a 13-year-old boy.
Blond, beautiful and fetching in pinstripes (and handcuffs), she's an unfortunate poster girl for the cause against adults romancing minors. Most guys seeing her would say, "And the problem is?"
The problem, to be clear, is one of trust and power - even in consenting relationships. An adult, especially one in a position of authority such as a teacher, counselor or priest, is always in a superior position with a minor player. It doesn't matter that 16-year-old Johnny is built like a locomotive and has enough testosterone to power a Scud missile. He's still a kid emotionally and psychologically.
Thus the sexual act, even if consensual, is still coercive to some degree.
Same with Susie. Girls may look like Madonna en route to a pole-dancing contest, but most don't have a clue what they're doing to Mr. Smith as he's trying to stay focused on those parallelograms.
They may be adult-like physically, but they're minors otherwise - still dependents, still living at home, and still reliant upon adults to be mentors, not sex partners. Children romantically involved with an adult tend to have all sorts of problems: shame, anxiety, lowered self-esteem, depression, vulnerability to drug and alcohol abuse, and an impaired ability to judge the trustworthiness of others, according to David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
Victims of sex abuse also are at higher risk for suicide, and may become adult sexual abusers themselves as a way of trying to gain psychological control over their own experience. The fact that not all people suffer long-lasting emotional damage as a result of such early sexual experiences surely doesn't justify relaxing our standards.
Instead, adults attracted to minors might do the grownup thing and seek psychological help. Kids will find ways enough to complicate their lives without the help of adults lost in their own narcissism.