Now there's a judge who needs to be disbarred.

Um..... WHAT!!?!?!?!?!11?!!11,34231!?!

I think that anyone, ANYONE, who has sex with a 10 year old girl needs to be sat down, and forced to castrate themselves. Give them a weed wacker, a bottle of cheap cheap vodka, and a roll of gauze, and made to go at it, or they will be killed.

In a country where this can happen in the first place, what did you expect of the Court system?

Even after a guilty Plea...by Nine men.

Well, my idea included an orbital sander, but that works too.

to play devil's advocate here...

if indeed the girl agreed, what does this say about the environment she is being raised?!!?!

it's repeatedly stated she wasn't forced. ...

that. THAT is SO sad that she is so young...and not innocent. Makes me so sad for these young girls.

Shame on all of them. *shakes head*

A 10 year old doesn't have the mental acuity to know what she's agreeing to in that way, even if she's had it done to her before, even if she's been brought up like that. The judge is wrong and instead of setting these cretins free she should be seeking out the people who were "caring" for this child and punishing them as well.

While you're at it, include the jailers who put her in the jail with all these men.

Actually, sorry to bring up psychology, but... The environment is everything. Orphans go through many instance ordeals that neither you or I could imagine and it has a perverse effect of turning a small child into an adult, basically... Minus the common sense and knowledge only gained by experience, of course.

The thing that sets children apart from adults is supposedly children's lack of worry and carefree nature. Only experience wears this away, and children raised in certain environments are worn of their carelessness very, VERY soon.

That's not to say that this girl is an orphan - It's only an example.

If you take a look back at our earlier days (humanity's), you'll see that children had to learn to survive at a startlingly young age - Hunting as children, mating as adolescents, raising broods as teenagers and dying before their prime. They must have been very "mature," maybe if not by your or my standards (which really hold "mature" and "cultured" to be parallel - which should not be so).

Ranting, ranting... Uh... Where was I?

Oh yes. I remember. I was disagreeing with you that a 10 year old lacks the mental capacity in every way shape in form to know what she's doing. Psychologically children know less because of their obvious lack of experience, and they're held as stupid because of such (and their changing ideas of life), but in no way is it true that they're aren't capable of grasping things like this and saying they aren't is ignorant.

P.S. I second the motion to enact the plan with the weedwhacker and such

I say send these nine men to jail and they will "probably agree" to have sex with Bubba (or whatever they call him).

I never leveled her as stupid. I said she didn't have the mental acuity. She isn't growing up in 1100 a.d. The condition of a child is not the same as her understanding what she's agreeing to. The responsibility lies on the adult who CLEARLY understands how wrong it is to engage in sexual activity with someone of a minority age. This is not psychology, it is irrelevant. She may well be conditioned to have sex with older men, she isn't making this decision, she's conditioned.

This is not to do with an act by necessity of societal and environmental situation as might have occurred for our ancestors. Whoever is "taking care" of this child should be held accountable. This child didn't wake up one morning and say "wow, I feel like gang banging a few guys".

I don't need psychology to tell me that, I don't need a freaking study, I WAS a 10 year old girl. She doesn't have the mental acuity to come up with this idea on her own.

u r nuts

So what this boils down to for you is morality. It is wrong for people to have sex with children. I would agree with you, and most other people also would. But where does morality stem from. If you say religion, then maybe these people aren't the same religion as you. If you say genetics, maybe this girl was into puberty already and capable of having children. If you say culture, then you are claiming moral relativism, and then nothing is wrong, as long as you and the people around you are in agreement. Don't get me wrong, I am agianst what they did, I just don't think that you can really base any argument on morality these days.

Six Teenagers (ages not stated), Two 'older teenagers', and Two men. NOT 9 MEN.

And it wasn't all at one time which is how I originally thought this was talking about. It was still statutory rape but not as bad as it sounded.

Different cultures have different ages of 'consent' , even different ages of marriage and it really depends on the culture and the values involved.

I can't pass judgement on any of them, it's my hope that the Judge had an understanding of these factors when the ruling was made.

Akstika, Moral Relativism is a valid argument here. If a person only lives to the age of 30 and 3 of their 4 children die not only do they tend to marry at 10 and begin having children at 12, but 20 is past middle aged!

At 10, these 'Kids' ARE adults for their cultures. They're not opening christmas gifts and playing video games, they're hunting/gathering/cooking/raising families. And imposing our morals on someone elses is completely out of place and loses it's meaning.

i r dum donut quote meh

How does puberty and the ability to bear children enter into this?

I can tell you with absolute certainty that a child of 10 is not capable of deciding to have an orgy with 9 adults with a rational view of the consequences or even what the act is unless there is some outside influence that has conditioned this child to feel that it is ok to do so.

This doesn't stem from religion, that I can assure you. This doesn't stem from culture, though the culture I prefer does not condone this.

I'm not even sure why I need to defend my moral base, how is this about me?

Just for comparison(kinda like the varying levels of Hell, which are all bad), I would personally rather be raped with a roll of quarters than, say, a chainsaw.

That being said, all rape sounds better than it really is. Words can't describe the hell a rape victim lives in.

They said that 9 of the 10 guys pleaded guilty. Was the judge the 10th guy? I mean, that's the only way this craziness makes any sense.

I'm not sure why you were making a moral argument as to why the dudes should know that what they were doing was wrong, which is what you did when you said

dollyllama : The responsibility lies on the adult who CLEARLY understands how wrong it is to engage in sexual activity with someone of a minority age.quote]

this is an argument based on morality, your morality.

I was pointing out that maybe what they think is wrong is not the same thing that you think is wrong. Which wouldn't be too far fetched, considering that they are from an aboriginal tribe.

My point about puberty was that from an evolutionary standpoint, the age of consent is the age of ability, at least in most mammals.

So, what I am really asking you I guess, is what leads you to say that the adult should know how wrong it is.

About your statement concerning her being conditioned to do this sort of thing. I would guess that you are right, but that thier society probably has vastly different views about sexuality than ours, and if it has worked out for them so far, who are we to decide. I would say let the aboriginal community deal with these men the way that they normally would, whatever that is.

*I know I come off as defending it, but I do not. I am taking on the devil's advocate role, and challenging arguments that at least from my point of view do not seem fully developed.

Very true, I'm pretty sure I mis-interpreted what was typed.

Seconded.