Opinion piece – Ilona Bērziņa, BNN
What to do if a fourteen-year-old girl runs away from home and stays with a 27-year-old man for a week and claims she loves him? Shame and hide her away? Call in psychologists? Take away her phone, access to the internet and leave her without pocket money? It won’t help.
She will just put on rose-tinted glasses and will want to show her belonging to the adult world. Another question is – what was the man thinking (was he thinking at all?) and will there be a criminal procedure commenced over all this?
Publications about the missing girl had her photo attached. The photo depicted a teenager, not a young woman. What seems more notable than the girl’s wandering episodes (she has gone missing for four times now!) is what her father told the media – that in previous disappearances, the teenager had stayed with the 27-year-old man.
One can assume the two talked about history, geography, discussed mathematics or played chess. But we would like to know the response from the police about this. Have they interviewed the man at all? Maybe the teenage girl sees only romantic relationships and feels flattered having received attention from a man 13 years older than her. But the man should keep in mind that
a close relationship with a minor is a breach of the law.
The girl’s father told the media: “The investigator spoke strictly with her [the girl] and said this is the final warning. Well, we’ll see.” But perhaps the adult man who doesn’t seem to understand the risks should get a strict talking to.
Is it really necessary to remind people that the involvement of young people under the age of sixteen in intimate relationships, when committed by an adult, is a criminal offence? This is listed in Section 161 of the Criminal Law (Acts of a sexual nature with a person under the age of sixteen) and Section 162.1 (Encouraging to Involve in Sexual Acts).
Does the reminder really require a social advertising at public transport stops, or does it require an exemplary case?
Unfortunately, the general impression is that in Latvia such cases aren’t viewed very seriously unless a minor was either raped or forced into intimate relationships.
Teenage sex has somehow weaselled its way into the category of self-evident things,
the main shock is for correct use of contraceptives. We have come so far that cohabitation of two sixteen-year-old teenagers together with parents of one of the youngsters is not considered something out of the ordinary – as long as they use condoms.
As for sexual acts among minors, last year SKDS performed a survey ordered by Dardedze Centre “Family relationships and experiences of harmful sexual behaviour among children”. The survey can be found on the Dardedze website.
Responses given by respondents when asked about consensual sex before reaching the age of 16 become very interesting in the context of the aforementioned case. 41% said they consented, but did not understand the meaning; 34% said they consented to sex; 17% said
they consented, but when it became confusing they could not stop it;
15% said they were forced into sex by manipulation or threats; 14% said the sexual act occurred with the use of physical force, violently.
Although the survey focused on sex between teenagers, conclusions can be made for similar situations between adults and teenagers.
Looking all this, the girl mentioned in this story falls into the category in which everything happened consensually. The question remains if the relationship between a teenager and the partner twice her age could remain a storm in a cup – or if State Police takes the investigation of this case seriously.
Or perhaps, considering the level of sexuality that permeates modern society, this whole story will seem like no big deal to some, since everything that happened (if it did happen) happened consensually. Nevertheless, the law wars all – sexual relationships between an adult and a teenager are unacceptable even in an era of sexual liberalism.