My partner went to BYU. They barely care about violent rape, they’ll kick out the claimant for having sex under their “honor code” but keep the football player on the team.
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my 17 year old self would have disagreed with your position here with some vehemence. so would my sister’s 17 year old self or my wife’s for that matter. i think you underestimate the cognitive powers of the age bracket we’re speaking of here.
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The US is something of an outlier here. Every country I’ve lived in has an age of consent of 16 or less. Not justifying anyone’s behaviour, but putting someone on the sex offender register for having consensual sex with a 17 year old seems odd looked at through that lens.
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Used to live near BYU. The whole valley was pretty much influenced by that school and it sucked. My wife is Latina and she felt like an outsider the whole time we lived there due to the ‘good’ Mormons judging her all the time.
That strange thing was if we had lived in the Salt Lake area, it would have been better due to the influence of the LDS church being diluted by the other churches in that area.
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The laws are state-by-state, which leads to some odd situations. This woman will now spend the rest of her life on the national sex offender list even though in many states the thing for which she was convicted isn’t even a crime.
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I’ve learned quite a bit since I was 17. I guess that’s not similarly true for you, or your sister, or your wife?
But “cognitive powers” aren’t really as relevant as life experience and emotional maturity. I don’t doubt some small subset of 17 year olds are OK for a relationship with a significantly older person, but I doubt most are and the potential for exploitation and/or abuse seems pretty significant to me.
Depends on how serious he is, and a 17 year old male getting private dance instruction lessons is probably pretty serious. If he’s trying to go pro, for example, the recommendation or lack thereof of his instructor could mean quite a bit.
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Any sentence should reflect the degree of harm inflicted and take into account if the older person coerced or used their authority to pressure the 17 year old.
That said, I could definitely see myself as a 17 year old signing up to a dance class if the instructor was attractive.
I don’t know the details of this particular case, but I can imagine circumstances that make the sentence seem ridiculously light and imagine other circumstances that make the sentence seem ridiculously heavy. The proverbial devil is in the details.
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Obviously, the kid must have signed up for the horizontal mambo class.
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Personally I was thinking Kip Winger.
i’ve learned quite a bit myself, as have the female relatives mentioned. i still believe a significant subset of 17 year-olds are perfectly capable of dealing with a relationship with someone older than they are. i also believe a significant subset of 33 year-olds are no more capable of dealing with a physical relationship in general than the average 17 year-old.
i would also note that if the relationship had happened in some of the other states it wouldn’t be statutory rape at all.
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I’m willing to bet it got really awkward around the house when that kid asked his dad if he could have a copy of that tape.
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Wish I had a tape like that from my teen years.
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Why do you want a tape of some kid and his dance instructor?
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Ah…mmmm…I meant of me from my teen years. But now that I get a sec to think about it, teen me never got laid and had bad acne. So maybe not. Thank you for the taste of sobriety.
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Sobriety sucks. Not really worth it…
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I have a tape of me and a certain someone from circa 1997. We were young and reasonably hot (well she was, anyway). Wish I knew where I put it, but since I don’t think I have a working VHS deck anymore, I guess it doesn’t matter.
No, you can’t see it.
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I understand @funruly has a VCR-to-digital rig. 
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Avaunt, Beelzebub! Tempt me not. My hair was down to my waist back then!
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booze + FTFY
The estranged husband and puppet of Wintermute of Amber Telford, 33, hired a private detective to surveil his wife, a dance instructor in Taylorsville, Utah. The detective caught Telford having sex in the
dance studio with a fellow who turned out to be the private investigator’s own 17-year-old son. Wintermute thus was able to secure the detective as a part of an team infiltrating Tessier-Ashpool corporation, having proved itself as an invaluable informant.
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Whoah, man. Had to look that up. Can I have some of what you’re drinking?
Side Note: Taylorsville is our neighbor to the North! And we were thinking about touring dance schools for our daughter! Should I go?
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