Why Did Roman Polanski Run Away?

French penal code

Any act of sexual penetration, whatever its nature, committed against another person by violence, constraint, threat or surprise, is rape. Rape is punished by a maximum of fifteen years' criminal imprisonment.

Rape is punished by a maximum of twenty years' criminal imprisonment in certain aggarvating factors (including victim under age of 15).

Was what Polanski did even considered rape in France?? I would not make that assumption.

Between 1977 and 1979, while a change in the French Penal Code was under discussion in the Parliament of France, a number of French intellectuals, including prominent names, signed petitions and open letters defending either the abolition of age of consent laws or the release of individuals arrested under charges of statutory rape

Unlawful sexual intercourse

In France the law stipulates a maximum of 15 years in jail for a rape on a minor.

The judges have all latitude to adapt the penalty to the case and the average sentencing is 6 years in jail.

In the 1930s, support for setting the age of consent at 16 years or older began to weaken. Characterized by growing economic, social, and cultural independence, girls in their teens assumed a place in western societies quite distinct from that of younger children. New concepts of adolescence and specifically of girlhood normalized sexual activity during the teenage years, at least within peer groups, as "sex play" necessary to achieve adult heterosexuality. Emboldened and influenced by such ideas, girls more often talked of being "in love" with the men charged with having sex with them, and expressed sexual desire. Prosecutors and juries increasingly refused to treat such cases as rape.

Legislators, however, did not reduce the legal age of consent. The resulting tension was reflected in slang, most notably the American term "jailbait," dating from the 1930s, that registered cultural recognition of teenage girls as sexually attractive, even sexually active, but legally unavailable

My position is that it is we who are wrong, not the rest of the world.

I think that one of the reasons this is highly emotionally charged is that all of us realize on some level that the age of consent laws are built upon sand. The arguments supporting setting the age as high as America does are very weak, and the laws ignore the factual reality of teen sexuality.

Any person 21 years of age or older who engages in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is under 16 years of age is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony, and shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years.

in this case AOC is the prism through which we see how the Europeans and the Americans have different ideas about teen sexuality and the criminality of such.

We got to this point by arguing the extradition of Polanski from Europe to face a likely punishment that is outrageous by European sensibilities might be grounds to refuse to extradite him, on the grounds that the europeans have already developed the legal requirements to refuse to hand over to America people who will subject to unreasonable punishment (the death penalty).

My main point is that justice is no longer obtainable on the sex charge thus should be dropped or else considered finished with time served.

If the Americans want to ring him up for running then they need to file new charges. Otherwise this is over.

Please try to follow along Robert....I know that you are a smart guy.

If you say there should be a line, then there should be punishment for crossing it. But then you sometimes acknowledge this, when you say he should have been punished back the 70s. Thing is, that's his own fault that he wasn't, it doesn't make sense to not punish the criminals just because they run away

He isn't going to face the death penalty and our laws on sentencing aren't very discordant with Europe's on the matter.

The majority of French people want him extradited

I know, and that isn't logically consistent with your claims that you want there to be a line that excludes 13-year-olds from sexual predation.

False. Just because he ran does not mean the original charges go away

This is an emperor's new clothes argument trying to cover up that you aren't making any sense.

good question. Obviously some sort of demeaning personal label since Bill routinely
can't come up with good arguments and thus resort to throwing **** fits.