Here in now-third-world California, a new perennial of the MSM is outrage that American Mexicans being arrested for statutory rape because they’ve gotten married here at age 15.
When you can point to CA for an example of the legal system getting it right, you’re in bad shape.
The age of 15 used to be a fairly normal time in all cultures for getting married or engaged; a woman was considered a potential old maid in England if she made it to 18 without being married or engaged, and if she hit 21 she was definitely an old maid. In the past, most states in fact permitted marriage for girls after the age of 14 with the consent of their parents. That is, they permitted marriage, not sexual abuse. Obviously, customs have changed, but early marriage is not in the realm of sexual abuse.
However, the problem with the mentally ill or the developmentally disabled is that they are very easily victimized because the law simply says, oh, it was voluntary. I worked in a group home and there were some local people who thought it was very amusing to stop one of the residents on his way back from the sheltered workshop and give him a quarter to masturbate in front of them. But it was “voluntary,” right? And they were technically adults, so the law didn’t care about this humiliation.
In this case, I don’t know why they’re not being a little more energetic in their response. Victimization at group homes is a constant problem.