[NSFW!!] Is it unethical, or illegal to sexually exploit a young woman with an IQ in the range of 52 to 55?

Wasn’t this question asked a few months ago?

Never go full retard.

I think it is illegal to take advantage of the mentally handicapped, and it is certainly illegal to have sex with a 15 year old.
Those boys are looking at being the new girls on the cell block.

Ethically it doesn’t matter that she was mentally handicapped. It’s unethical to get into a relationship under false pretenses.

I don’t know if it is a crime or not but clearly its not something anyone should do.

Boy oh boy, am I going to get shit for this one or what…

If she is under age then it is obviously illegal, and her mental state would be irrelevant. However, if she was of age, and they did not abuse her physically and cause damage, and she enjoyed it while it lasted, I see nothing wrong with it. Well, perhaps not nothing, but very little. Sure, the guys could all be called unethical bastards and no one would disagree, they are taking advantage for sure, but we need to look at it from her point of view and thru her eyes.

Legally, I think the best you can hope for (assuming she is of age) is perhaps a ruling of statutory rape, but for this you would need to prove she is unable to consent some how.

But really, everyone enjoyes sex, mental problems or no. If she is on birth control, of age, and had a good time and was not hurt in any way, what is the problem.

I would like to take a very close look at any laws saying you can’t have sex with the mentally handicaped. I can’t help feel that a law stating that, would be on a par with the government ruling that the mentally handicaped are not human.

If she keeps doing it, and is of age, I would have to consider that consent.

They say ignorance is bliss, does she even understand the concept of using someone? does she know what exploitation is? what stigma and taboo mean? or is she mostly just having a good time? I suspect, this is more of a problem for her family and friends than it is for her personally.

@poisonedantidote I am buying a lot of what you are saying.

I am super pissed at the parents for just throwing their hands up and saying lets put her on birth control and hope for the best. They are the villains in this scenario.

Ethics are invented.

But I wonder which systems of ethics say it is ethical to exploit someone. Capitalism, I suppose.

The law may have this be illegal for her being 15 years old (and the boys’ ages), regardless of IQ, depending on where the people were.

I expect some jurisdictions also have some rules about people who are legally incapacitated, and some of them might specify a low IQ, but I would think the person would need a diagnosis or something, particularly since IQ is generally just a test result, and not a test that is required of everyone.

Another consideration is the young woman’s way of looking at it. She might not have considered it to be a problem, and just because she has low IQ doesn’t mean we have the right to choose for her.

But her guardians, family and friends did, it seems to me, have a responsibility to look out for her, which I would think would have included trying to help her with such situations.

Exploit being the giveaway word.
Wrong.

@poisonedantidote Underage is irrelevant in some jurisdictions so long as the age gap between them is small enough. For instance, many places allow a 17-year-old man to have sex with a 15-year-old girl, though if a 37-year-old man tries it, well, 15 will get you 20. Check the local laws on that one as they do vary.

As for exploitation, look at all of the exploitation that happens amongst adults of average IQ. Bear in mind that there are some adults with normal-or-above IQs that are naive enough to not understand exploitation,, stigmas, or taboos.

That said, @rebbel is correct, but it does depend on how we define “exploit”. For all I know, the girl may have a savant-like understanding of human nature even though she can’t pass a standardized academic test.

Regardless of age, there is a question of her ability to consent. If she is found to not be able to understand consent, then it is possible the boys are legally raping her.

Ethics is a choice between two bad choices. This is not unethical, it is immoral. And also disgusting.

I too find it unethical for those boys to take advantage of someone that society has deemed less than acceptable, mentally. I find it unethical that her parents also put her on birth control though I don’t know if she was able to consent to the procedure. However, it doesn’t help using phrases like ‘never go full retard’ @filmfann when even discussing stuff like this.

The description suggests she wanted to do what she did with the boys enough that the parents couldn’t talk her out of it.

“Exploit” really is loaded ( or “use” or “trick” or “bamboozle” etc ). If that’s what the boys felt they were doing then they have indicted themselves, definitely unethical.

@filmfann I think it is illegal to take advantage of the mentally handicapped, and it is certainly illegal to have sex with a 15 year old. if you are a teen male between 13yr to 16yr is there really any law that says it is illegal to boink a teen female who is 15yr? Is being 52 on the IQ scale really low enough to be considered mentally unable to make choices for yourself? What if the person has the mental condition such as Asperger syndrome, or Tourette syndrome, would they be less seen able to make choices?

@poisonedantidote If she is under age then it is obviously illegal, and her mental state would be irrelevant. Even if the partners she is having sex with is younger, the same age or a year older?

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought I am super pissed at the parents for just throwing their hands up and saying lets put her on birth control and hope for the best. How is that different than what parents do that have young ladies who have their full mental capacity to stay off their back and their legs closed?

@Zaku But her guardians, family and friends did, it seems to me, have a responsibility to look out for her, which I would think would have included trying to help her with such situations. Short of locking her up in the house or chaperoning her everywhere to be a buffer for the young vultures, how would they do that? How would they make her remember when the young men shower her with false attention making her feel special?

@dabbler “Exploit” really is loaded ( or “use” or “trick” or “bamboozle” etc ). If that’s what the boys felt they were doing then they have indicted themselves, definitely unethical. I thought to say they were playing her, but that would assume they were just outwitting her and not using the fact she lack the reasoning power out the gate to know they were not genuine. If I knew you were in hard straights and I use that to get work from you but way less than you should be paid, I am exploiting your situation. If you are not on hard straights but I tick you into paying more for something than it is worth or doing work for free then I played you more than not.

@Hypocrisy_Central the difference, in my mind, is the full mental capacity.

I am not sure at what age I may consent to my daughter having birth control. I hope she never needs it until she is out of my house. But lets say 17.

12 Would be a huge abdication of my parental responsibility. This woman, in the hypothetical, seems to me 12 at 15, or something akin.

I imagine it is very hard to raise children with disabilities, and maybe I am being judgmental. I am typically very even tempered, however, this would piss me off to watch.

Ethics and legality aside (to many gray areas for me), I worked with a fella, Ed, a few years back that took advantage of a similar situation. The woman in question was an adult but she was very slow. Her four brothers, on the other hand, were not. After several repeated warnings to leave their sister be were ignored they finally showed up one night where we worked and beat the shit out of him and his Gremlin (I swear to God that’s what he drove) with baseball bats. He was in the hospital for two weeks.

Nobody said they felt sorry for Ed. Does that help?

I agree with @zenvelo.
I found this in Wikipedia. According to wikipedia Statutory rape can apply to an adult who doesn’t have the mental capacity to consent.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The phrase statutory rape is a term used in some legal jurisdictions to describe sexual activities where one participant is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior.[1] Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sex with minors under the age of consent,[1] it is a generic term, and very few jurisdictions use the actual term “statutory rape” in the language of statutes.[2] Different jurisdictions use many different statutory terms for the crime, such as “sexual assault,” “rape of a child,” “corruption of a minor,” “carnal knowledge of a minor,” “unlawful carnal knowledge”, or simply “carnal knowledge.” Statutory rape differs from forcible rape in that overt force or threat need not be present. The laws presume coercion, because a minor or mentally challenged adult is legally incapable of giving consent to the act.

It is extremely unethical. Someone with an IQ that low is like a child mentally even if they are 30 years old. The reason we have statutory rape laws is because of the young persons inability to understand fully what impact the sexual act will have on them mentally or physically and the intent of the person committing the crime.

I do agree that a low IQ does not mean the person should never enjoy sex or physical contact, but when they are being taken advantage of it is disgusting. Those men are masturbating inside of her, it repulses me. Maybe, and I say maybe, if she has no emotional pain when the guys move on, I can be more forgiving about it. But, if she goes through emotional pain and loss when they are done getting their rocks off, again, it is horrible.

Pretty sure it’s illegal because it’s unethical. There was an “In the Heat of the Night” episode about it. The mentally challenged daughter got pregnant with her “boyfriend’s” baby because the sister didn’t want to give her birth control shots and hurt her. Anywho, she had the baby at home in the middle of the night and it was stillborn. The girls didn’t wanna get in trouble so the sister kept it quiet and buried it. A police officer and his dog happened upon it on a walk and they sorted everything out and arrested the “boyfriend” who was really the gardener because it’s illegal to take advantage of a mentally challenged person.

I am ok with the parents giving her birth control. I forgot to mention that in my answer.

One interesting question. It’s okay for the parent to use the pills and not tell her because they can’t watch her all day. Morality and ethics could not be discussed with the kids because I don’t think they would have understood, and since of the did it and bragged all the others wanted to try. But as far as it goes to legality you have to check the laws.

I am unsure of the legal side of things, but it is a pretty sick concept.

This hurt my stomach to read. And I hope this girl finds someone to take care of her…

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Never go full retard is a line from the movie “Tropic Thunder”.

Isn’t mental capacity very much relevant to consent for sex?!!??!
Yes it is wrong. You are FOOLING someone into a situation which they don’t fully understand. She obviously doesn’t know how she’s supposed to act in these cases which is why she does the deed with everyone. This is so disgusting and seriously depraved.

@Hypocrisy_Central asked: ”@Zaku But her guardians, family and friends did, it seems to me, have a responsibility to look out for her, which I would think would have included trying to help her with such situations. Short of locking her up in the house or chaperoning her everywhere to be a buffer for the young vultures, how would they do that? How would they make her remember when the young men shower her with false attention making her feel special?”

I don’t know how they would help her with such things. Notice I wrote “help her”, not “provide absolute protection”, but several possibilities do come immediately to mind:

* Some kids do have close enough escort almost all the time to avoid having sexual liaisons be very easy, especially without detection. Suitors closing in could be given a talking to.

* She could get counseling and instruction, before and/or after something happened.

* She could be given training in ways to resist seduction without reporting to guardians. Before birth control existed, young girls were raised to make courtship a slow process that involved parents. Some sort of training in that direction might be something to consider for someone at a disadvantage for whatever reason.

* Even if they didn’t see this coming, once they knew it had happened, they might respond, perhaps by making it known to her teachers, peers, and/or if illegal, to the police. The social stigma of publicly having taken advantage of a retarded 15-year old might be enough to deter others with the same idea. For some people, the threat of intimidation of police action might also be an option.

I agree with @Zaku it’s not just about her getting pregnant, she could get an STD! Or beaten or tortured. From what I gather she is thinks that anyone that gives her a little attention deserves her trust whereas most adults or even young adults know better than that! Her parents/guardians really need to step up their game. Maybe notify some sort of authorities on the behaviour of these low life boys that are taking advantage of her.

@Zaku Before birth control existed, young girls were raised to make courtship a slow process that involved parents. Back in the day when that was fashionable, it worked to keep the young people’s lust in check. These days everyone wants their privacy and to be trusted. I am sure it was done, if she was away from the house, having someone with here seems paramount. Around the neighborhood, I would suspect they believed her quite safe from harm, at least.

The social stigma of publicly having taken advantage of a retarded 15-year old might be enough to deter others with the same idea. Does having an IQ as low as 52 to 55 mentally lacking enough to be considered helpless, as those who don’t know a pencil from a carrot stick?

@sarahhhhh From what I gather she is thinks that anyone that gives her a little attention deserves her trust whereas most adults or even young adults know better than that! How many young ladies with full mental capacities are waylaid by the wiles of young men they have a crush on? I guess if one is a mentally challenged girl, who few would go out to really be friends with because she can’t be as cool as normal young ladies, having a young man seem to take a shine to you overrides any feelings of threat, etc.

@Hypocrisy_Central IQ of 55 is probably like functioning at a 9–10 year old level more or less. It doesn’t really correlate perfectly like that, but 55 is very impaired.

@Hypocrisy_Central just because a person with an average IQ would be promiscuous doesn’t mean it is okay for people to take advantage of this girl too. If an adult is charmed by a boy or if a girl with very limited mental capacity is fooled/mislead into something, it is very different.