This report brings up many questions discussed on The Good Men Project — the types of actions that get men labeled “sex offenders”, how young is too young get a sexual stigma that will haunt you forever, presumption of male guilt (three children were playing together, only one boy was charged), even questions of parental supervision and how closely your children should be watched when they are young.
Excerpted from reason.com:
Last week the parents of a Wisconsin boy sued Grant County District Attorney Lisa Riniker for charging their son with first-degree sexual assault, a Class B felony, after he played “butt doctor” with a 5-year-old girl. He was 6 at the time. When the boy’s lawyer tried to have the charge dismissed, Riniker replied: “The legislature could have put an age restriction in the statute if it wanted to. The legislature did no such thing.”
According to the complaint (PDF), the girl is “the daughter of a well-known political figure in Grant County,” and her brother, who is the same age, also was involved in playing doctor but was not charged….Although the boy, now 7, is too young to be prosecuted or named in a juvenile delinquency petitition, Madison.com reports, county officials are using the felony charge to force his parents into accepting “protection or services” for him. The lawsuit says that once he turns 18, he will be listed as a sex offender.
Read the original article here.