The Glade 4.0

Funny.

If this were an older male soliciting a younger woman online, he'd be crucified . . .

My question is not the ages, but in the jurisdiction issues that this presents.

Strict liability, like DE mentioned, is the only exception I can think of to this.

I'm glad you agree with my original critique then.

Okay, if the age isn't the issue, let's put that aside.

You're saying that as long as the sex doesn't occur in a jurisdiction, it doesn't matter if the arrangements and setting up of the sex does? Because that's what the charge is.

This is the distaff version of a much larger problem. Men have traveled to foreign countries, especially places like Thailand, for decades because of the lax attitude toward prostitution and sex with children if the money is good enough.

The woman here traveled to a foreign country and specifically to have sex with a child. If she knew he was 16, she committed a felony by Texas law. The United Kingdom is prosecuting their citizens for the same practice. I've heard of laws in consideration here but I don't know if any have been passed.

Like I said DFK, as an absolute, your statement is not accurate and does not incorporate the "entirety" of criminal law.

I agree, intent is very important, and in this particular case, probably the most important facet. I was just being nit picky about your comment.

As long as the sex does not occur somewhere illegal, there's no foul committed. See above comments re:Thailand.

Even more so if the sex actually doesn't occur. In this **** up country, you can beat the **** out of someone and get probation. Touch one 17 year old and you're branded as a child molester for life. Why is sex so much more evil than violence? Its just like with the movies. Kill hundreds of people show rampant violence and destruction... one pair of titties, and its instantly "R". At least sex and intimacy and such makes you feel good. I know I'm not in the mood to drive fast and run over pedestrians shooting my guns out the window right after I get laid. I just want to cuddle and nap.

Because anything involving sexual activity is automatically a worse crime.

Okay. How do you feel about a domestic company arranging contracted sexual escapades (involving minors) in a third world country? As some kind of "vacation plan for perverts?"

Are crimes committed here, then?

The United States has risen to take legislative action against the growing evils of child sex tourism. In 1994, Congress established 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b), which is aimed towards prosecution of child sex tourists. Section 2423(b) criminalizes traveling abroad for the purpose of engaging in illegal sexual activity with a minor. Currently, successful prosecution under § 2423(b) requires the government to prove that an alleged child sex tourist from the United States formed the intent to engage in sexual activity with a child prior to meeting the child and initiating sexual contact. In other words, a defendant is only punishable under § 2423(b) if he has the intent, while traveling, to engage in sexual activity with minors. The federal government has successfully utilized § 2423(b) to target several child sex tourists. Current proposals to eliminate the intent requirement may broaden the government's prosecutorial power by allowing the government to prosecute United States citizens who engage in sexual acts with children while abroad, regardless of when they formed the intent to do so.

Child sex tourism grows at an alarming rate and inflicts devastating consequences on millions of children around the globe. As a global leader, the United States is committed to using its power to reform and eradicate child sex tourism industry.

-Sowmia Nair

(b) Travel With Intent To Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct.— A person who travels in interstate commerce or travels into the United States, or a United States citizen or an alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States who travels in foreign commerce, for the purpose of engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.

I'm relatively sure there are federal laws against that, too.

I've always wondered, but are there legal repercussions against the person involved that misrepresented themselves?

Like in this case, the boy allegedly told her he was 20, and she believed him. As he is the one that actually caused the problem in the first place by lying about his age, would he face any repercussions if he were somewhere in the US?

I say that because he's legal where he is. I've just never understood how the person that was lied to can be punished, in some cases so severly, while the person who actually created the problem by lying seemingly gets off scott free. This seems like a horrible injustice.

Because sex is awful and dirty and noone should ever have it except for the express purpose of reproduction. And even that can be resolved with in-vitro.

But if the country you are going to be in when the sex happens does not consider the sex illicit... Then the US government is overstepping its boundaries by prosecuting.

Especially since it is not a standard age of consent in the US, but varying by state.

t never occurs to anyone that the teenager might possibly want to engage in sexual activity unless it's an underage male with a woman, and even then it's still treated as if the teen can't possibly understand what they were really doing. In popular media, fiction or nonfiction, all female teens always really want to say "no" and most of the males really do too, it's just "peer pressure" or something stopping them from doing so.

But if the country you are going to be in when the sex happens does not consider the sex illicit... Then the US government is overstepping its boundaries by prosecuting.

Especially since it is not a standard age of consent in the US, but varying by state.

This creates a rather interesting chicken and egg scenario, because the portrayal of teenagers always really wanting to say "no" is a result of our own puritanical reaction to sex. Teenagers have to want to say no, have to be unwilling, otherwise we might be in danger of removing the social stigma on enjoying sex.