I was watching Sky News earlier and Baroness Casey was discussing the current showbiz sexual predators scandal.
Now Baroness Casey is the Labour Peer who published a mealy-mouthed acceptance that there was an overrepresentation of a certain demographic in grooming gang cases.
One of the things she was pushing on this interview was for the age of statutory rape to come up from 13 to 16. That is all penetrative sexual activity with an under 16 be labelled as "rape" and treated as such legally.
For those who find that wording strange currently the age of consent in this country is in two tiers. Under 13 all penetrative activity by a male (child or otherwise) is rape regardless of the circumstances. So for example one of my school friends first time was with her 12 year old boyfriend, according to the law he is a rapist. It didn't come to the attention of the authorities but if it had it could've been prosecuted depending on a multitude of factors including the opinions of social services, the police, cps or her parents.
Essentially Baroness Casey wants to now extend this legal scenario up to 16 and has made no indications of exceptions to the rule.
Now I strongly agree with age of consent reform in this country and would like to see the AOC extended to 18 with close-in-age safeguards written in (Romeo and Juliet clause). The US has this in many states and their sex crime laws are wholly stricter and more robust than ours.
I just find it bizarre that the Government, to show that it is "serious" about VAWG, wants to label 15 year old or even 18 year old boys as rapists for close in age relationships whilst still allowing predators like Brand and Walliams legal defence to having sex with 17 year old girls whilst in their 30's and beyond without legal recourse.
I also think Baroness Casey has failed to acknowledge that everything those girls in Rotherham and elsewhere went through was illegal and considered a "grave crime", and the issue wasn't the lack of legislation or sufficiently serious language but the fact when it was raised the girls weren't believed, taken seriously or had their experiences minimised or dismissed.
What do you think is causing this skewed approach? Why is there a reluctance to raise the age of consent? Anybody else getting frustrated with the predominant discourse?