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Sholeh Patrick March 18, 2010

| March 17, 2010 9:00 PM

Eighteen is a funny age - labeled an adult, but before a brain has fully developed and rarely equipped for the responsibility. Nevertheless it's where society draws the line; at 18 and typically still in high school, one can vote, die for country, and sign a binding contract, yet can't legally drink alcohol. He or she can also go to jail for having consensual sex with someone slightly younger. It's called statutory rape.

This law - intended to protect minors from adults who take advantage - has cost some good kids their freedom. Worse, after sex offender registration laws, it has plagued the same kids for life by categorizing them with dangerous pedophiles.While police and prosecutors don't go hunting for these cases, it's been used by upset parents or to fuel anger after teenagers break up. That isn't what much needed and still underused rape laws are intended to prevent or prosecute.

Dropping the age of consent would still leave minors vulnerable to much older, more predatory adults, but what of these high school sweethearts? Or a senior who graduates with his or her date a little farther behind in school? Parents may consider a mutual decision to become active at this age poor judgment, but it hardly rises to the level of violence or predation.Defining the limits has been difficult, but slowly states are attempting to correct the problem by enacting what's been called the "Romeo and Juliet" exception.

The issue has been discussed in the Idaho Legislature in years past. This session, it's coming to fruition. Senate bill 1385, cosponsored by Senators Hill, Lodge, and MacKenzie, and Representatives Jacquet and Shirley in the House, modifies the definition of rape to exclude consensual situations in which one person is 16 or 17 and the other is less than three years older (measured from birth dates).The bill passed the Senate unanimously this week. The new law does not change any act committed by force, regardless of age.

Sholeh Patrick, J.D. is a former state lobbyist and columnist for the Hagadone News Network. E-mail her at sholehjo@hotmail.com