If we can all put our emotions aside for a second, and look at this from the view-point of halacha… I would like to understand halacha’s take on this.
So, there’s no concept of “age of consent” in halacha, that I know of. Please correct me if I’m wrong because I’m only posting this to dissect the halacha and understand it better. Assuming the perpetrator is a male, the only question is, is the victim a male or female, and did they resist the violator. If the victim is also a male, there is no death penalty unless the perpetrator actually commits ????? ??? and there are witnesses. If the victim is female then there is only monetary reparation, and that’s only if the victim makes an effort to resist by screaming out or looking for assistance. If they go along with it then it’s just plain “????”. It’s still a disgusting act, but what does halacha say?
In terms of the ‘Law of the Land’, do we really really call someone a “pedophile”, if he or she was a “pedo” (child) at the time of committing the crime? Obviously, the age difference in this case is significant; 15 vs 6 (or was it 9?), but at what point do we make the cutoff? What if it was two 6 year olds? or a 9 year old and a 6 year old? Where do we draw the lines?