There is a case out of New Zealand that was reported in the New Zealand Herald about a 36 year old woman getting pregnant and giving birth to a child whose father was 11 years old (12 when the child was born). Here are a few excerpts from that article:
it has also highlighted disparity in the law of rape, which makes it impossible for a woman to be accused of the crime.
Present legislation stipulates the crime of rape applies only when men force sex. Both carry a maximum sentence of 20 years but only men can be charged with rape. In contrast, women who force an unwilling partner to have sex face charges of sexual violation.
I have talked about this on here previously in which some states have laws like this one. So when people look at the numbers for “rape” the numbers are skewed much lower for women offenders because of this.
This also makes me wonder where the equality is? Rape is rape, sexual violence is sexual violence regardless of the gender. It can still be very harmful no matter what gender the perpetrator may be. So why should there be different laws?
Another part of the article talks about this:
Mr Clearwater said most abuse of the sort in this case was not reported. He said the way the boy disclosed to the principal underscored the way in which the abuse was perceived. By saying “you won’t be very happy with me”, Mr Clearwater said the boy appeared to believe he was the one who had acted wrongly.
Mr Clearwater said the psychological impact would expose the boy to added risk of alcohol and drug abuse, relationship problems, anger and other mental health issues.
The executive director of Rape Prevention Education, Dr Kim McGregor, said male survivors of sexual offending by women often felt the abuse they suffered was minimised by society. “Just because sexual violence has been perpetrated by a female doesn’t make it any less violent.”
It is nice to see the press raising awareness about these kind of cases. You can read the entire article here.
