Lest You Think Southerners Are Comfortable With Incest
Jacob Sullum | November 28, 2007, 5:51pm
Here's a weird wrinkle in Georgia's sex offender law that I discovered while researching this week's column: In addition to people who engaged in oral sex ("sodomy") as teenagers, the list of offenders who are required to register includes people who commit "incest" as teenagers or adults. Section 16-6-22 of the Georgia code defines incest this way (emphasis added):
A person commits the offense of incest when the person engages in sexual intercourse with a person to whom he or she knows he or she is related either by blood or by marriage as follows:
(1) Father and daughter or stepdaughter;
(2) Mother and son or stepson;
(3) Brother and sister of the whole blood or of the half blood;
(4) Grandparent and grandchild;
(5) Aunt and nephew; or
(6) Uncle and niece.
This definition covers not only parents' sexual abuse of their children but consensual sex between relatives. One of the plaintiffs in the federal suit challenging Georgia's sex offender restrictions, for example, was accused of having sex with his sister when he was 13. Such behavior is certainly troubling, but it does not indicate that he's a child molester. In fact, the incest definition extends to sex between grown siblings as well as sex between people who are not even related by blood, such as a woman and her aunt's husband. Yet the minimum punishment is 10 years in prison, followed by registration as a sex offender, with all the restrictions that entails, for at least 10 years more.
Mad Max | November 28, 2007, 10:22pm | #
And here's a story ripped from today's headlines. A right-wing, reactionary, theocratic, fundamentalist court in California has upheld the state's incest statute. The story gives an account of the crime:
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2007/scot112807.htm
"Wednesday, November 28, 2007
"California’s ban on incest does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. . . .
"[Gerry Glenn] Scott was charged under the [incest] statute after his daughter told family members about an encounter that occurred in December of 2004, just days after her eighteenth birthday.
"Scott’s daughter had accompanied him to his home after they had celebrated her birthday with other family members at her sister’s nearby residence. Raised by another relative, Scott’s daughter had seen her father only occasionally during childhood.
"Scott’s girlfriend, who also resided at the home, was awake when the two arrived, but went to sleep on a couch in the living room. Scott and his daughter went into Scott’s bedroom to get some socks and, as she planned to spend the night, Scott’s daughter laid down on the bed fully clothed.
". . . Scott had intercourse with her for approximately two minutes.
"After the encounter, Scott’s daughter attempted to leave, but found the residence’s front security door locked. Scott opened the door, telling his daughter not to tell anyone about the encounter . . ." but she did, the snitch.
"
