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Police shouldn't investigate all underage sex, say chiefs



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POLICE chiefs have called for new guidelines on underage sex to be introduced.
The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) believes cases of consensual sex involving under-16s should no longer be automatically referred for police investigations.

Tom Halpin, the Lothian and Borders Assistant Chief Constable a
nd the Acpos spokesman on sexual offences, said some young people felt criminalised by the issue.

An Acpos spokesman said the organisation had made a submission to the Scottish Government on the issue.

The police chiefs believe investigations should take place only where there is evidence of exploitation, including bribery, threats and grooming, or where alcohol or other substances were involved.

Under the current arrangements, teachers, health and social workers and children's charities are obliged to tell the police if they become aware that an underage youngster has had sex and police then have to investigate.

Mr Halpin said: "We recognise young people make life choices which do include full sexual relationships with a partner at an age most people believe is too early.

"We don't seek to criminalise whole sections of society but we do seek to ensure they are protected from dangerous individuals."



The full article contains 201 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 07 January 2008 11:00 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Sex education
 
1

Alternative (High Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 07/01/2008 12:35:05
"The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) believes cases of consensual sex involving under-16s should no longer be automatically referred for police investigations."

Oh, so it's a return to the old way of doing things and the application of common sense again is it? Great. About time.
2

Unimpressed one,

07/01/2008 13:34:26
#1 Unlikely, since Acpos also believes in de-criminalising drugs but look how far idea's got.
3

FLUB,

a rocky outcrop in eastern central Scotland 07/01/2008 13:52:07
I may have been just a simple Constable, but surely the only way to determine whether there has been evidence of exploitation, or coercion, or the administering of intoxicants, or whatever, is to, er, investigate?

It's what happens after the findings of the investigation are reported to the proper authorities that should be subject to discretion.

I would advise that in the case of ACPOS you beware of Greeks even when bearing gifts.

The Police are not there to make the law, they are there to enforce it.
4

FLUB,

a rocky outcrop in eastern central Scotland 07/01/2008 13:52:18
I may have been just a simple Constable, but surely the only way to determine whether there has been evidence of exploitation, or coercion, or the administering of intoxicants, or whatever, is to, er, investigate?

It's what happens after the findings of the investigation are reported to the proper authorities that should be subject to discretion.

I would advise that in the case of ACPOS you beware of Greeks even when bearing gifts.

The Police are not there to make the law, they are there to enforce it.
5

Gorgie_Tony,

Edinburgh 07/01/2008 14:06:29
Unless its gay - then the police will charge about like a bull in a china shop in order to create a 'victim' and an 'offender' - irrespective if it's consensual.
6

Zoobee,

Edinburgh 07/01/2008 14:15:50
'some young people felt criminalised by the issue'...

it's against the law and therefore they should feel like criminals!

If kids started to respect this law then there wouldn't be the burden on the tax system by underage girls with kids liking off the state (sorry I mean tax payer!)
7

abracadabra,

07/01/2008 14:45:03
Tom Halpin is an idiotic tree climber from the west of Scotland who doesn't know what he's talking about.
The Scottish Police Service has become a joke and is doing less and less an senior officers like Halpin make their own rules.
Mr Halpin, if you don't want to do the job the public are paying you to do, get out.
8

Urban Guerrilla,

Edinburgh 07/01/2008 15:32:07
#6, are all laws equally worthy of respect? I don't think so. For instance, there's another thread today about an attempt to get a pardon for a woman found guilty of witchcraft in 1944. It was illegal then and it isn't now, because it was a silly law. I wouldn't have respected such a law even in 1944.

Not all things which are "against the law" are equally heinous or harmful to society.
9

John Blackley,

Austin, TX 07/01/2008 16:19:56
I must have missed this. When did the police in Scotland ever investigate every instance of sex below the age of consent?

From my days in high school (in the late Stone Age) - where the teen queen shows up bairnt and never a word to the police - to latter days where fourteen and fifteen year-olds "fall" pregnant and, Presto! - get a council house as soon as they turn sixteen.

Plenty of work there for the police and, in my experience, never a charge laid.

Oh, and for the "what's the problem with underage sex?" crowd, the problems are legion. You're paying the consequences, I'm paying the consequences. The kids themselves are seeing their whole life's potential thrown away so they can rear their 'mistakes'. We have children raised by kids who, because they're "under the age of consent" have no clue how to bring up healthy, well-adjusted human beings.

Yep, there's a reason why the age of consent is set where it is. Time we started properly enforcing it and reducing the number of witless neds in our society.
10

Urban Guerrilla,

Edinburgh 07/01/2008 16:32:51
#9, your argument that "there's a reason why the age of consent is set where it is" made sense in the days before effective contraception. Rather than trying to enforce the unenforceable, what about compulsory contraceptive jabs at puberty for both sexes, to be repeated until they were ready to procreate?
11

John Blackley,

Austin, TX 07/01/2008 16:55:53
Urban Guerrilla, I doubt that the age-of-consent laws are "unenforceable". I believe that the police, parents of underage pregnant girls and we as a society have chosen to not enforce them because "It's just too much bother." Further, as the police association has just said, we wouldn't want to criminalise the little darlings, would we? (Tongue firmly in cheek.)

You're advocating compulsory contraception. Good luck with that and I'll be fascinated to hear how you intend to get that written into law.
12

The Rattler,

07/01/2008 16:57:53
"it's against the law and therefore they should feel like criminals!

If kids started to respect this law then there wouldn't be the burden on the tax system by underage girls with kids liking off the state (sorry I mean tax payer!)"

And you, on the other hand, have never broken the law in your life ...........

I think what the powers that be are trying to sort out, is the ludicrous situation of a couple of years ago in the borders, where two 15 year olds were caught by the girls mother, and the boy ended up on the Sex Offenders Register for three years.

It would be nive to think that common sense can be applied for a change.
13

calum,

07/01/2008 17:21:32
What is it with senior police in Lothian these days? Hardly a week goes by without some story about what the will or will not investigate. Drugs, prostitution, trafficking etc. etc.. Have they forgotten that they are there to investigate if the Crown, in the form of the Lord Advocate or the Regional procurator Fiscal, TELLS them to investigate whether ACPOS, Deputy Chief Constables or any other sundry imported expert likes it or not. And too much arrogant assumption that they can make the law up as they go along to suit whatever is a la mode in this year's Politics and Policing "must have". Far too much telling the public what they won't do rather than what they will!!
14

Horrible Cankers..dans le Cyber Shebeen,

07/01/2008 17:29:05
What if the girl is 15 and the boy 12?
15

Urban Guerrilla,

Edinburgh 07/01/2008 18:27:57
#11, be realistic. You can't keep tabs on every 14yo or 15yo in the land 24/7. Compulsory contraception would be a much simpler answer, because the problem is under-age pregnancy, not under-age sex.
16

FLUB,

a rocky outcrop in eastern central Scotland 07/01/2008 21:26:58
#5 - I've just figured what you're getting at (I think), and you're wrong. Like most institutions in this country, the Police have become intimidated by the aggressive, petulant, homosexual lobby and would therefore not go near it, preferring to write it off as a 'life choice'.
17

weeshooie1,

Australia 07/01/2008 21:29:49
I was almost 14 and she was 17. Ye think ahn gonnae report her? Not on yer nelly, ah'm still grateful :o)
18

John Blackley,

Austin, TX 07/01/2008 23:18:17
Urban Guerrilla, asking me to be realistic while advocating forced contraception?

Okay, I give up.
19

DSF,

Livingston 06/04/2008 14:41:44
I was under the impression the police had already lowered the age of consent to 14 anyway. As the father of a pregnant 14 year old, we were told that no action would be taken against the 17-year old involved as the sex was 'consensual'. Armed with this knowledge, the boy has managed to get another girl (15) this time pregnant. Again, the police are doing nothing because it was 'consensual'. Obviously the age MUST have changed.

If there's no enforcing of the law, then there's no respect for the law. My idea of respect for the law has now totally changed; it obviously it doesn't apply to some, and the police, rather than being enforcers of the law, are making it up on the fly.

When you're driving, do you use speed limits as 'guidelines', or do you stick to them? What keeps people within them? The fear of a penalty, fine, or sentance. If you knew you could speed without any risk of that, then the roads would be much more dangerous. Likewise, if teenagers know that they can have underage sex without any consequences, then they will.

Except there are consequences; in my case my daugher will have her baby and all the support she needs from us, she's one of the lucky ones. Many others aren't that fortunate and do have to rely on society for support. In turn, this (as pointed out above) does increase the cost bourne by people through taxes for healthcare and housing.

Before anyone asks, this is the way I felt before my daughter became pregnant. I really naievly thought that the law was there to be enforced by the police, not made up by them.

Sorry - that was probably a bit preachy/ranty!

 

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