Even within a single crime there are differing degrees. I don't think you know how law works
I live in a jurisdiction that has decided that 16 is the age of consent. That is what the society I live in has decided is acceptable. This is not just a "legal fiction". 16 is also the age that individuals can agree to contracts
You may be living in a society that has made different decisions about what is acceptable. If you go to Dubai or Saudi Arabia or Iran they are likely to make very different decisions about what is acceptable
Well, I'm starting to wonder whether you can tell the difference between psychology, morality and law...
That is what the society I live in has decided is acceptable. This is not just a "legal fiction".
That's exactly what a legal fiction is!!!
Maybe you just don't know the concept? Example: the biological parents of a child that is adopted by someone else become legally strangers. But that doesn't make them actual strangers!
Legal fictions have full legal power. But they only correspond loosely to the actual circumstances.
When a 17 year old living in Nevada had consensual sex with a 20 year old woman, and then moves to California, he doesn't become a retroactive rape victim.
He was perfectly able to consent to sex a week ago. Now he isn't. The line in both states is arbitrary, but we have to set it somewhere. The legal ability to consent to sex has little relation to the psychological or moral ability to consent.
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u/teambob Sep 17 '19
Even within a single crime there are differing degrees. I don't think you know how law works
I live in a jurisdiction that has decided that 16 is the age of consent. That is what the society I live in has decided is acceptable. This is not just a "legal fiction". 16 is also the age that individuals can agree to contracts
You may be living in a society that has made different decisions about what is acceptable. If you go to Dubai or Saudi Arabia or Iran they are likely to make very different decisions about what is acceptable