Sexism in legal system

[haplesshobo]

A middle school teacher pleads guilty of having sex with a fourteen year old, but doesn't get sent to prison.

Why?

Because the teacher was a woman, and the student was a boy.

If a male teacher would have had consenting sex with a fourteen year old student, there's no way he could have avoided prison for doing what he did.

It seems like a double standard.

[kimpossible]

I agree with you. I hope she at least has to register as a sex offender.

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

She didn't get sent to jail because it was oh-so-HOT.

But seriously, I thought all of these female teachers were going to jail. Did one of them actually manage to argue against the established weight of the law and avoid a jail sentence?

[kimpossible]

I'm guessing she plead to a lesser charge?

[TB4000]

When it's a male at fault, usually they're viewed as more or less knowing what they're doing, and when it's a female she's viewed as having mental problems.

[kimpossible]

I think men are also more forgiving than women are towards female sex offenders. Like the young guy is a stud for nailing his teacher. I'd be furious if it happened to my son. If the teacher was good looking, I don't think my husband would be very upset. Maybe even proud.

[LaiSteve66]

To be quite honest, if my 14 year old daughter fucked her teacher, I would be pissed and want his ass thrown in jail.

But if 14 year old son scored with this



I'd give him a high five.

[TB4000]

It does kind of give the impression that the women don't know any better, and that guys are supposed to score, whereas girls are innocent flowers.

[haplesshobo]

Originally Posted by TyroneK(prettypretty)

She didn't get sent to jail because it was oh-so-HOT.

But seriously, I thought all of these female teachers were going to jail. Did one of them actually manage to argue against the established weight of the law and avoid a jail sentence?

In the few publcized cases involving attractive female teachers in america, those women didn't get jail time. This latest case didn't, and Mary Kay Letournea was originally given only probahation. Mary Kay only went into jail went she violated her probahation, after getting caught having sex with the same minor again.

But, you're correct that her hotness played a factor in the leniency shown by the court.

There was another case in the news recently, where another woman was charged with having sex with a minor. In that case, 40+ woman got drunk with two teenage boys and had sex with them because she wanted to be a 'cool mom'. However, she ended up getting hit with 30 years because she wasn't as hot as those women who avoided jail.

For me, I would think that a teacher having sex with a student is even worse than an adult having sex with a minor and would have expected more punishment against the teacher.

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

I guess the scenario usually plays into too many male sexual fantasies for any jury to muster up the rage needed to impose a maximum sentence. It's hard to send off a person to jail when it seems that no real harm was done and that the "victim" actually liked what happened.

It's also easier to see this ambiguity in cases where Mrs. Robinson has bedded the stereotype of the young hormonal adolescent rather than some older man bedding the archetypal impressionable, emotional teenage girl.

[haplesshobo]

It still seems disturbing that we judge such cases through the prism of how attractive the woman is. Imagine if we were to do that as well to date rape cases, where we let off all the attractive men accused of date rape and punished only the ugly men. Then, there would be lots of justified rage and protests at such a ruling, but these female teacher cases attract more curiosity than anything else.

[Arex]

I'm guessing unattractive people overall, both men and women, tend to get convicted at a higher rate and receive harsher punishment than attractive people, no matter the crime. In the case of date rape, I'm betting it's easier to establish reasonable doubt as to whether the sex was consensual when you look like Pierce Brosnan or Johnny Depp than if you look like Steve Buscemi. (No offense, Steve.)



Sucks for us ugly people.

RX

[kpih]

^Interesting notion. Institutionalized lookism in the criminal justice system.

I wonder if anybody would fund such research.

[A.R.A.M.]

Originally Posted by kpih

^Interesting notion. Institutionalized lookism in the criminal justice system.

I wonder if anybody would fund such research.

I believe there has already been research on this issue, though I don't know of any studies off the top of my head. I remember Cialdini in one of his books on influence discusses this phenomenon. He called it the "halo effect", I think, arguing that good looking people are also assumed by juries in a Chaucer-esque way to be fundamentally good people too.

[haplesshobo]

Originally Posted by A.R.A.M.

I believe there has already been research on this issue, though I don't know of any studies off the top of my head. I remember Cialdini in one of his books on influence discusses this phenomenon. He called it the "halo effect", I think, arguing that good looking people are also assumed by juries in a Chaucer-esque way to be fundamentally good people too.

Interestingly enough, I think I've heard of such studies but the interesting twist was that being attractive helped depending on the crime. For some crimes, it was actually worse for the defendant if they were pretty or handsome.