Every actor in the law enforcement community wants to strike a balance between ensuring that a victim is adequately protected and imposing realistic punishments that are proportionate to the level of the crime. To help ensure this, many states have lowered punishments when offenders are under the age of 21 with victims over a certain age limit. That way, while still penalizing inappropriate sexual contact, they differentiate that subclass of statutory rapists from child predators. Some people even suggest that statutory rape laws. However, in the vast majority of statutory rape scenarios, the age difference between victim and offender is greater than six years, suggesting that these offenders do qualify as child predators and should be treated as such. References

Burrell, J. (2009). Teens, sex, and the law. Retrieved September 26, 2009 from About.com

Web site: http://youngadults.about.com/od/legalissues/a/statutoryrape.htm

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Norman-Eady, S. (2003). States that limit punishment for statutory rape to offenders over age

21. Retrieved September 26, 2009 from Connecticut General Assembly

Web site: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2003/rpt/2003-R-0150.htm

Sexlaws.org. (2009). What is statutory rape? Retrieved September 26, 2009 from Sexlaws.org

Web site: http://www.sexlaws.org/what_is_statutory_rape1

Troup-Leasure, K., and Snyder, H. (2005). Statutory rape known to law enforcement.

Retrieved September 26, 2009 from National Criminal Justice Reference Service

Web site: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/208803.pdf