Has anyone else been following all the stories of abuse in the Youtube community? Most of the victims seem to be 14/15 rather than 16/17 but they're really making me feel like what is important in cases of statutory rape is not just to honor the wishes of the victim, but to serve justice for a larger community. IDK. Maybe it's different if you aren't well known and most of your friends and acquitances (and online forums i.e. here) know about your past behaviour and continue to allow your presence... I still wish there was a way for me to serve time in prison without having to get my ex involved against her wishes. Sometimes it helps living in a country where the age of consent is 16 (and having grown up in that culture) but I wish I could serve American society, while simultaneously respecting the narrative of my victim.
Also, I feel like there must be a massive amount of unprosecuted statutory rape in California where the age of consent is 18 and there is no close-in-age exemption. That means that anyone who has sex in high school is a child rapist. It's bizarre to think that this simple fact possibly means that California has by far and away the higest density of child rapists in the world, even if the actual behaviour of the teenagers in-and-of itself (outside of the application of law) may be identical to that which occurs within the other states!