Reporting Sex Offenses Between Children

[CollinRirth]

I'm 17 & my girlfriend who is 17 recently told me that she was molested by another kid when she was 7. The kid was 10 or 9 at the time. He's currently a Marine in the Marine Corps & not living in our state. But I'm wondering, is there anything we do against this guy? My girlfriend wants to know the chances of them going after him. So this is just a hypothetical question. She said it only happened once.

[free9man]

What state did this occur in?

[CollinRirth]

What state did this occur in?

Oklahoma City but we moved to Kansas & he's in Georgia now

[free9man]

So the alleged acts occurred completely in Oklahoma? How long between the acts and the move to Kansas for you and Georgia for the alleged perp?

[CollinRirth]

So the alleged acts occurred completely in Oklahoma? How long between the acts and the move to Kansas for you and Georgia for the alleged perp?

Well, we moved about 7 years ago and him 10 years ago, a few months after it occurred. And yeah, completely in Oklahoma

Well, we moved about 7 years ago and him 10 years ago, a few months after it occurred. And yeah, completely in Oklahoma

Is this a problem? The fact we moved a longtime ago?

[Mark47n]

There is no "we" there is only "she".

I'm going to shoot from the hip on this and say that the chances are slim to non that there is anything to be done at this late stage. The memories of when we were children is questionable at best.

This would require reporting the incident in OK City (not your current state) because that's where the incident took place and then the police would investigate and then the prosecutor would determine if there is any chance of convicting.

That's how this story goes.

[Taxing Matters]

I'm 17 & my girlfriend who is 17 recently told me that she was molested by another kid when she was 7. The kid was 10 or 9 at the time. He's currently a Marine in the Marine Corps & not living in our state. But I'm wondering, is there anything we do against this guy? My girlfriend wants to know the chances of them going after him. So this is just a hypothetical question. She said it only happened once.

She may report it to the Oklahoma city police and/or prosecutor. But realistically the chance of the guy being prosecuted for anything out of this is pretty low. First, if he was only 9 or 10 at the time there will be the issue of whether he may be deemed old enough at the time of the offense to be responsible for his actions. Very young children do not yet have a very well developed sense of right and wrong and what is legal and what is not. Even if he might be considered old enough to be responsible for his actions, he would almost certainly not be prosecuted as an adult for this but rather instead dealt with under juvenile delinquency procedures. That limits what the state may do even if he is determined to have been delinquent. Given that he is now an adult, that may make the matter not worth pursuing at this point. Finally, there is the matter of proving the case. If the only evidence is the testimony of the victim who was herself only 7 years old at the time that presents a huge problem because there are issues of how competent a 7 year-old would be and issues how good her perception and memory of events really are. In other words, her testimony might not get a lot of weight because it might not be considered reliable.