Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet Laws In The Modern Age

In the US today Americans recently discovered an emerging trend known as adolescent sexting. Sexting has been defined as the sending or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images, messages, or video through a cellphone or the Internet; sexting can also be referred to as sending nudes. As Guidance Counselors at a High School it is imperative that we educate ourselves and our students on the consequences sexting may have. Many students fail to realize that once the photos or messages are sent there is no turning back. Those images/messages may be forwarded to audiences via the internet and various social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat etc. causing humiliation, depression and in some cases even causing suicide.

Justice is defined as being fair, right, or lawful. To determine if an action is just, the question “was it morally right or wrong” must be answered. In law today, justice is determined through written rules or laws. Similarly, the novel Romeo and Juliet uses the idea of justice, for two lovers have families are at war, which creates great tension throughout the families. The two families, the Montagues and the Capulets often begin riots throughout the streets of Verona, which causes many complications for Romeo and Juliet, as well as challenges the idea of justice. In the novel Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, justice was not achieved through the Prince’s ruling.

Shakespeare's famous play of the two star crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet arouses many debates in the literary world; among them belongs the question of who Shakespeare portrays as the culprit responsible for the couples death: foolish young love, societal norms and customs or simply fate?The plot of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare unfolds in Verona, where the protagonists, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, each belong to powerful feuding Verona families. Juliet, who is only 14 years of age, has been promised by her father to a man named Paris without her consent, as was common for women at the time. In Verona, expectations and societal norms for men and women diverge. Men are portrayed as sexual, violent, strong characters who fight for honor while women are portrayed as inferior, weaker and represent possessions and conquests of men. Although, Juliet does not conform to these expectations and defies them throughout the play by her actions and behavior until she meets a tragic and untimely death with her lover Romeo. William Shakespeare uses Juliet, an unconventional protagonist compared to the society’s gender roles, and her tragic downfall to criticize the patriarchal society he lived in during the Elizabethan era.

Sexting has been all over the news. Of course its normal for someone to want to send a naughty picture to the significant other, but now we have teens (and even pre-teens) sending nude pictures to get attention from someone of the opposite sex. The pictures usually end up all over the teens school. We live in a new day and age, but most adults would be mortified if a nude picture of them was seen by someone that wasn’t

Sexting is imprudent, untoward, and unfortunately - not all that uncommon. In a recent study of college freshmen, thirty-one percent of the participants reported sending a sexting image of themselves in high school to someone else using a cell phone (Martinez-Prather, 28).This action is a felony crime in Kansas, punishable by up to thirty-four years in jail, a substantial fine, and inclusion on the registered sexual offender list for life (Mobile Media Guard). While this may seem like excessive punishment for sexting, this punishment in not specifically for sexing. Since Kansas has no laws directly related to sexting, when minors are involved in sexting, the laws they have broken are those

Most recently Canon City, Colorado suffered from an ethical dilemma when, hundreds of naked co-eds started showing up on the football team’s cell phones. The act of having pornography on their phones executed not only the suspension of the team, it also caused the police and courts to assess the acts as child pornography trafficking. This predicament has inspired blatant conversation between parents and the community at large.

Americans recently discovered an emerging trend known as adolescent sexting. Sexting has been defined as the sending or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images, messages, or video through a cellphone or the Internet. Sexting can also be referred to as sending nudes. As Guidance Counselors at a High School it is imperative that we educate ourselves and our students on the consequences sexting may have. Many students fail to realize that once the photos or messages are sent, there is no turning back. Those images/messages may be forwarded to audiences via the internet and various social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat etc, causing humiliation, depression and in some cases even causing suicide.

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t… If You’re A Girl: Relational and Normative Contexts of Adolescent Sexting in the United States is a study by which researchers Julia R. Lippman and Scott W. Campbell investigate the teenage phenomenon of sexting. Their study looks at the

Bill Hughley, Executive Director of the Rockdale Coalition for Children and Families, said “state wide statistics illustrate that high risk sexual behavior among teenagers is a growing problem as young teenagers begin to experiment with sex with people much older than them (Jones, par 4). Many of these teens are engaging in sex not realizing that if both partners are not within the same age bracket they could be committing a crime. There is an exception for teenagers convicted of statutory rape and child molestation included as part of so called “Romeo and Juliet Laws” teenagers as long as they are not more than four years apart-to be charged only with misdemeanors and they would not be requires to register as sex

With the creation of computers and Internet, high-tech crimes are occurring more frequently than few decades ago. According to a report made by the U.S. Department of Justice; “one in five children (10 to 17 years old) receives unwanted sexual solicitations online” (Knetzger & Muraski, 2008). One of this online sex-crime against children is known as child enticement. The Florida statute 847.0135 states that an individual is involved in online child enticement when “[…] utilizes a computer on-line service, Internet service, or […] to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice, or attempt to […] a child or another person believed by a person to be a child to commit any illegal act […] relating to sexual battery […]” (Knetzger & Muraski, 2008). Therefore, online sex-crime investigators must use the appropriate protocols during an investigation to avoid a lawful criminal defense based on law enforcement entrapment.

Finally, the crime of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct occurs when the defendant and the victim engage in sexual contact short of penetration. The age of consent varies from state to state and their really isn’t a guideline as to how they determine the age, Minnesota’s age of consent according to Kristen Johnson, Regardless of the age of the perpetrator, it is always statutory rape in Minnesota if the victim is under the age of 13. If the person under the age of consent is between 13 and 16 years old, they can legally consent to sex with someone that is less than 4 years older than them but the age of consent in California is 18 years old It is illegal for anyone to engage in sexual intercourse with a someone under the age of 18, unless they are that person's

On top of that, laws regarding Statutory Rape are different from one state to the next. “30 states currently consider 16 to be the age of consent; the remaining 20 states set it either at 17 or 18.” (Schwiegershausen “What You Should Know About Statutory-Rape Laws”). Some states allow the use of mistaken age or a small age gap (Romeo and Juliet Laws) as a defense against charges of Statutory Rape, and some states do not. This causes a lot of confusion as to what the laws are, especially for those moving from state to state a lot. Many people (minors especially) do not think it is an issue because if it’s consensual, why should age matter? The median age difference in Statutory Rape cases is 6 years. There are plenty of people who are married and have kids who are 6 or less years apart in age. Often because of this belief they do not take the time to research and discover the laws, and then they end up in a legal mess because it never occurred to them that consensual sexual activities would send one, or both, of them to prison. Those who understand Statutory Rape laws state that if it were truly consensual it wouldn’t be prosecuted, but there is a huge flaw in this line of thinking. If the law states that it is illegal to have sex with a person under the age of consent, and the law assumes that if it’s consensual it will not be brought to the court; that

Although there is the “Romeo and Juliet Law”, which is in place to prevent serious criminal charges against teenagers who engage in consensual sex with others close to their own age. In Florida, there is an exemption for consensual sex when the minor is 14-17 years old and the defendant is no more than four years older. If the defendant meets certain eligibility requirements, the law will remove the requirement of registering as a sex offender. The terms of imprisonment and fines may still be

Child pornography has been present in society for centuries, but has only recently become more accessible through the development of the printing press and subsequently, the technology of the Internet. Until the mid-1990s, "illegal child pornography [had only] involved depictions of actual children engaged in sexually explicit

Two years ago the word sexting did not exist. The combination of the words “sex” and “text” is now a term that is heavily discussed and causes issues for parents, students, educators, and law enforcement. Although there is no legal definition of sexting, it generally refers to writing sexually explicit messages, taking sexually explicit photos of themselves or others in their peer group and technologically transmitting those photos and/or messages to their peers. Now many people don’t know the problems associated with sexting. Most of these problems occur when one or all parties are minors. When a minor is involved there can be serious consequences that can follow a person for a life time.