The Steubenville rape case

I’ve skimmed a few articles about the Steubenville rape case. I’m just going by my cursory impressions, since this is not something I care to study in depth.

i) One article made Steubenville sound like a Hollywood parody of redneck town. But isn’t Steubenville the site of a very traditional Catholic university where Scott Hahn teaches?

ii) From the articles I skimmed, I’d say the defendants were highly culpable. I have no sympathy for the defendants. Moreover, a year in juvie is a slap on the wrist.

iii) Needless to say, parents who let teenagers party all night are as morally clueless as their kids.

iv) Why do teens go to parties like this if not to get drunk and carouse?

v) How drunk is too drunk to give consent? Intoxication and illicit sex have been paired for centuries. Is that implicit consent?

vi) In this case the defendants were apparently sober, but what if both male and female are drunk? And that isn’t just hypothetical. Surely that’s a common occurrence.

Is it still rape if both parties can’t give legal consent? Or does the law continue single out the male as the offender?

vii) What if a teenage girl or adult woman seduced a teenage boy or adult man by getting him drunk? Would she be prosecuted for rape? Or is there a tactic assumption that males are always the willing party?