Though Idaho is no longer considered a "common-law" state with regard to domestic situations, i.e. regarding the determination of marital status and on other issues it is legitimately still very demonstrative of common law history, a fact that can be attested to by the ability of a single do-gooder to choose to enforce a law that was previously ignored. Other issues, such as common property, among domestic partners, are a later adoption of a common law practice, in Idaho. For the most part it makes sense that legal situations in low population areas could and possibly still should be decided by legal prescience as well as the foundations of common law, in which lies the desire to create and enforce laws that are reflective of the common people and their beliefs and standards at any given time. Changes to the Idaho statute on Rape could include more specific sentencing regulations, a trend associated with a national movement for minimum mandatory sentencing, but many would argue against such action.
References
(1990). The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
American Prosecutors Research Institute State Rape Statutes p. 8 Retrieved November 20, 2007 at http://www.arte-sana.com/articles/rape_statutes.pdf
Bonner, J.R. (2002). Reconceptualizing VAWA's "Animus" for Rape in States' Emerging Post-VAWA Civil Rights Legislation. Yale Law Journal, 111(6), 1417.
Bryden, D.P., & Lengnick, S. (1997). Rape in the Criminal Justice System. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 87(4), 1194-1384.
Burgess-Jackson, K. (Ed.). (1999). A Most Detestable Crime: New Philosophical Essays on Rape. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hall, K.L. (1989). The Magic Mirror: Law in American History. New York: Oxford University Press.
Idaho Rape Statutes Retrieved November 18, 2007 at http://www3.state.id.us/idstat/TOC/18061KTOC.html
Zounds! Enforcing the Law in Idaho!. (1996, August 12). National Review, 48, 63.
