Template:Reform Sex Offender Laws News/Criminalization of youth

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Criminalization of youth

• Revealed: Britain's youngest convicted rapist, 11, attacked his nine-year-old sister twice and must now sign the sex offenders' register

A boy believed to be Britain’s youngest ever convicted rapist abused his younger sister twice when he was just 11, a court heard today.
( Mark Duell, The Daily Mail, UK, Aug. 25, 2016)

• Calls for Judge's Removal After 18-Year-Old Sexual Assault Defendant Given Probation

An online petition is calling for a judge in Massachusetts to be removed from the bench after sentencing an 18-year-old accused of sexually assaulting two classmates with two years of probation.
(EMILY SHAPIRO and KELLY MCCARTHY, ABC News, US, Aug. 25, 2016)

• Punishment That Doesn’t Fit the Crime

When Matthew Grottalio was 10 years old, he and his older brother initiated a touching “game” with their 8-year-old sister. “None of us knew what we were doing,” he said, and he soon forgot about the episode.
(ERIC BERKOWITZ, The New York Times, US, July 30, 2016)

• State appeals ruling keeping boy off sex offender registry

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska’s attorney general is appealing a federal judge’s decision to block the state from putting a 13-year-old boy who moved to Nebraska from Minnesota on its public list of sex offenders.
( Associated Press, Washington Times US, April 9, 2016)

• New teen sexting crime falls short in Colorado House

DENVER - A proposal to ratchet back criminal penalties for teens exchanging nude images of themselves has failed in the state Legislature. (Marshall Zelinger, - Associated Press, April 6, 2016)

• Teen charged with online sexual relationship with child

Troopers said the teen, who resides in the town of Wayland, allegedly formed a relationship with the child through social media channels. (Staff reporter - Democrat & Chronicle, US, April 1, 2016)

• Man, 20, and 4 juveniles accused of exchanging child pornography

The Bellevue Police Department says the arrests are the result of an investigation beginning on October, 30, 2015, when investigators received a report of teens using cellphones to exchange sexually explicit images of children. (Marjorie Sturgeon - KMTV News US, April 1, 2016)

• Should Cops Arrest a 14-Year-Old Boy on Child Porn Charges Because He Sexted?

Redding, Connecticut, cops arrested a 14-year-old boy and charged him with possession of child pornography, harassment, and obscenity. He must be quite the evil young man. (Robby Soave - Reason.com, US, March 30, 2016)

• Teen Sexting Prompts Efforts To Update Child-Porn Laws

Rampant teen sexting has left politicians and law enforcement authorities around the country struggling to find some kind of legal middle ground between prosecuting students for child porn and letting them off the hook.
( Kristen Wyatt - The Associated Press, US, March 17, 2016)

• New Mexico Attorney General Would Rather See Sexting Teens Treated As Sex Offenders Than See His Funding 'Jeopardized'

Teens sexting can't be addressed by existing laws. Law enforcement -- which far too often chooses to involve itself in matters best left to parents -- bends child pornography laws to "fit" the crime. They often state they're only doing this to save kids from the harm that might result by further distribution of explicit photos. How exactly turning a teen into a child pornographer who must add his or herself to the sex offender registries is less harmful than the imagined outcomes cited by law enforcement is never explained. ( Tim Cushing - Techdirt, US, March 9, 2016)