That’s the situation with Illinois sex offender laws, say reformers calling for changes to laws they say unfairly stigmatize low-risk teenage offenders.
Illinois law criminalizes so-called “Romeo and Juliet” relationships, in which two consenting teens have sexual contact but one is under the age of 17, the legal age of consent. The term refers to William Shakespeare’s play by the same name, in which Romeo, believed to be 16 years old, and Juliet, believed to be 13 years old, consummate a secret marriage. Illinois Voices for Reform, based in Fairview Heights, says that approach wastes resources on monitoring teens who are not dangerous while putting a “scarlet letter” on high school sweethearts.
“The majority of these guys are no threat to anyone,” says Tonia Maloney, president of Illinois Voices for Reform. “The risk of reoffending for these consensual teen relationships is virtually zero, yet they have all these restrictions, exactly the same as a child molester or a rapist.”
Illinois teens who commit what is commonly called “statutory rape” – sex in which one party can’t legally consent because of age – are generally charged with criminal sexual abuse, but aggravating factors, such as taking nude pictures, can increase the charges. A statutory rape conviction can result in prison time, as well as the offender being listed on the state sex offender registry for 10 years or longer.
To address that situation, Illinois Rep. Bob Pritchard, a Republican from Hinckley, introduced House Bill 1139, which would relax penalties on teens who have consensual sex with other teens and allow certain offenders to ask a court to remove them from the state’s sex offender registry. Under Pritchard’s bill, an offender must not be more than four years older than the victim, and the victim must have been 14 years of age or older at the time of the offense. Cases involving violence or a threat of violence are not eligible, nor are cases in which the victim was unable to understand or consent to the act. Those requirements are meant to weed out child molesters, sexual predators and cases involving mental disability.
“We’re all disgusted with older people who prey on young children, but that’s not what we’re talking about,” Pritchard says. He spoke with young people in his district who were prosecuted for similar situations, and to him, “the punishment does not fit the crime.
“These young people, their lives are shattered,” he says. “They’re having difficulty getting jobs. Some of them are now married and they can’t go with their kids to the park or the zoo on a school trip. They can’t even visit the school without appointments. It’s just so pervasive that it doesn’t make sense.”
Pritchard says changing the law is also a budgetary consideration.
“We’ve got to focus our limited dollars on violent crimes,” Pritchard says. “The type of people we’re talking about in this bill are not violent individuals. I think we’ve got to look at better solutions, and as we look at our budget problems, we’ve got to look at our whole penal system and think differently about how we treat people who don’t comply with normal types of activities.”
Maloney says between 730 and 2,000 teens are listed in the registry because of similar situations, including her own son, who would not be affected by Pritchard’s bill. Maloney also laments other recently introduced bills that would further tighten restrictions on sex offenders, including one bill to ban sex offenders from local fairs and another to prevent them from living within 500 feet of a child counseling center. A separate bill would even force people who committed sex crimes before the sex offender registry was created to retroactively register.
“There are more than 24,000 people on the registry in Illinois, but not all of them are threats,” Maloney says. “There are so many things that can land a person on the registry, not just rape or child molestation. It takes people who are affected by this to make a change, because all these guys on the registry just want to shut up and make it go away.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
Are you kidding me? He wants to make it legal for an 18 year old man to have sex with a 14 year old girl??? That is sick. How about making it two years difference under the age of 18, wait that is already the law, so why change it! And oh yeah, Romeo and Juliet KILLED themselves in the story because they were to immature to handle an adult, sexual, relationship. Maybe if it were illegal that wouldn't have had to happen =-)
And oh yeah, using (or misusing) a fictional story as a basis for an arguement isn't really helping an argument.
He's not saying to make it legal! He's saying not to put them on the registry and destroy their lives! A teen having consensual sex, and it doesn't even have to be sex, it can just be touching, should not be lumped with those that are true threats to our children! We don't need to waste precious tax dollars while important services are being cut to track those that are a threat to no one!
My Dad was 26, my Mom 16 when they met and married when my Mom was 17. My Dad WAS NOT
It is a known fact that girls mature much faster than boys. Even when I was 14, my very first boyfriend was 18. Nobody thought it odd or that he was a danger.
A 14 year old can get birth control without parental consent and in many cases get an abortion without parental consent. What the heck is wrong with these laws and society?
Most parents dont want their 14 year old children to be having sex. But, the reality is, THEY ARE! A girl who is 14 is able to get birth control, have a baby, and have an abortion, but it is illegal for her to even consent to sex in the first place. Kids are growing up in a society where sex is everywhere. It's on the t.v., it's in magazines, even commercials (remember Paris Hilton's Burger King commercial). I agree that they should wait, but they aren't and to have the guy wind up labeled as a sex offender for the rest of his life goes above and beyond the appropriate punishment. The restrictions placed on them ruin their lives - even before they go to college. And, there are girls that are lying about their ages. Most agree that girls today look much older than they are and saying they are 16 or 17 is not that hard to believe. We dont need a registry filled with teenage consensual relationships - this is not what the registries intent was. So, whether you agree or not with a 14 year old having sex, it is reality. Perhaps a reality we wish wasn't true, but it is and we have to find a way to allow these older teens to continue with their lives. Labeling them as sex offenders is not the way to fix this.
So when something is wrong it is best to just adapt to it??? That is cazy. I for one believe if we educate and enforce the laws on the books maybe some people will think twice before manipulating some kid. An 18 year old knows better and is an ADULT. There is no way anyone will convince me that we should just allow them to sleep with 14 year olds! And Tonia, you are so quick to defend sex offenders "Oh the girl lied, she looked 16" Any 23 year old who has sex with a 14 year old is sick. And therefore they should not be allowed near schools, or fairs, or daycares, etc. I am all for strengthening the restrictions on sex offenders. And lets remember the already allows for a 2 year difference, so a case by case evaluation is ok. But don't try and convince me that even though something is wrong, the best thing to do is allow it and move on, that is how we have gotten into the mess we are in now.
"All that it takes for evil men to triumph, is for good men to do nothing"
So what all of you are saying is that we are too hard on 18 year olds who have sex with 14 year olds????? That is ridiculous. It is sick and should carry a huge punishment. Maybe if we educate the public on the punishment it will stop. You will never be able to convince me that 14 year olds can give consent to an 18 year old, and therefore the 18 year old, male or female, needs to be punished as any adult would be, that includes the sex offendrs registry. Don't want to be on the registry? Don't take advantage of little girls.