kutv.com – 8-Year-Old Charged For Sexual Conduct With Sitter:

(KUTV) SALT LAKE CITY, Utah A mother is upset after a 14-year-old babysitter engaged in sexual conduct with her eight-year-old boy, and the eight-year-old was charged with lewd conduct.

Prosecutors have since dropped the charges against the boy, but his mother is still concerned.

The article goes onto to say that SLC State’s Attorneys Office felt that the 8 year old boy was a willing participant because he followed through with the 14 year old girls “dare.” In my industry, the “Dare” is referred to as grooming, the way in which the offender gets the victim to comply with the abuse. Grooming involves anything from bribes to positive attention, and it varies from case to case. Any prosecutor or child protection worker that does not understand this concept needs to find a new line of work answering phones for insurance claims.

By saying, “we thought he was a willing participant”, the prosecutor is saying that this child had the legal ability to give consent to have sexual intercourse. In Utah, the age of Consent is still 14, not 8. Legally speaking, the charges of criminal sexual abuse have no standing. What is troubling is the underlying idea that a prosecutor thought that an 8 year old could even consent to sex.

Technorati Tags: Rant, SexAssault, sexcrime