Template:Reform Sex Offender Laws News/Criminalization of youth

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Criminalization of youth

• Teens and sex: When laws don't keep up with reality

An 11-year-old girl in Michigan streaking in front of her brothers was charged with a sex crime.

A 14-year-old boy in Minnesota was charged with distributing child pornography after sending a photo of his genitals to a female classmate
(LOUISE WREGE, The Herald Palladium, US, October 10, 2016)

• Romeo and Juliet and Sexting: 17-Year-Old Faces Child Porn, Assault Charges for Consensual Sex with Girlfriend

They said that all they were going to do was delete the photos from the phone, so I blindly signed a paper allowing them to access it.' "After being arrested, I was suicidal and hopeless," Austin Yabandith, a 17-year-old from Superior, Wisconsin, recalls. "As of right now, I am just hoping for the best and preparing for the worst."
(Robby Soave, Reason.com, US, Sep. 12, 2016)

• Revealed: Britain's youngest convicted rapist, 11, attacked his nine-year-old sister twice and must now sign the sex offenders' register

A boy believed to be Britain’s youngest ever convicted rapist abused his younger sister twice when he was just 11, a court heard today.
( Mark Duell, The Daily Mail, UK, Aug. 25, 2016)

• Calls for Judge's Removal After 18-Year-Old Sexual Assault Defendant Given Probation

An online petition is calling for a judge in Massachusetts to be removed from the bench after sentencing an 18-year-old accused of sexually assaulting two classmates with two years of probation.
(EMILY SHAPIRO and KELLY MCCARTHY, ABC News, US, Aug. 25, 2016)

• Punishment That Doesn’t Fit the Crime

When Matthew Grottalio was 10 years old, he and his older brother initiated a touching “game” with their 8-year-old sister. “None of us knew what we were doing,” he said, and he soon forgot about the episode.
(ERIC BERKOWITZ, The New York Times, US, July 30, 2016)

• State appeals ruling keeping boy off sex offender registry

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska’s attorney general is appealing a federal judge’s decision to block the state from putting a 13-year-old boy who moved to Nebraska from Minnesota on its public list of sex offenders.
( Associated Press, Washington Times US, April 9, 2016)

• New teen sexting crime falls short in Colorado House

DENVER - A proposal to ratchet back criminal penalties for teens exchanging nude images of themselves has failed in the state Legislature. (Marshall Zelinger, - Associated Press, April 6, 2016)

• Teen charged with online sexual relationship with child

Troopers said the teen, who resides in the town of Wayland, allegedly formed a relationship with the child through social media channels. (Staff reporter - Democrat & Chronicle, US, April 1, 2016)

• Man, 20, and 4 juveniles accused of exchanging child pornography

The Bellevue Police Department says the arrests are the result of an investigation beginning on October, 30, 2015, when investigators received a report of teens using cellphones to exchange sexually explicit images of children. (Marjorie Sturgeon - KMTV News US, April 1, 2016)

• Should Cops Arrest a 14-Year-Old Boy on Child Porn Charges Because He Sexted?

Redding, Connecticut, cops arrested a 14-year-old boy and charged him with possession of child pornography, harassment, and obscenity. He must be quite the evil young man. (Robby Soave - Reason.com, US, March 30, 2016)

• Teen Sexting Prompts Efforts To Update Child-Porn Laws

Rampant teen sexting has left politicians and law enforcement authorities around the country struggling to find some kind of legal middle ground between prosecuting students for child porn and letting them off the hook.
( Kristen Wyatt - The Associated Press, US, March 17, 2016)