r/nottheonion • u/DerangedUnicorn27 • 4d ago

Convicted child rapist qualifies for Olympics

https://www.newsweek.com/steven-van-de-velde-dutch-beach-volleyball-olympics-1918442
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u/WolfetoneRebel 4d ago

Not a great look for the Dutch, their judicial system, penal system, or Olympic committee. Whether or not it’s “the rules” or not, enough people should have been kicking off well before now. Shameful.

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u/Wonderful_Net_9131 4d ago

Germany is equally as bad when it comes to sentences for child rapists. It's so strange. It's the one crime everyone (including other criminals) can agree on is one of the worst, yet they come off that lightly.

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u/artavenue 4d ago

„fun fact“ about germany: sex with a 14 year old is legal. A lot of things are also based on „old“ christian times when couples married with 16 or something.

The singer of rammstein did that, slept with the bff of his own daughter on their vacation. But it was legal so it is not part of any of the news story his cases had.

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u/Wonderful_Net_9131 4d ago

Depends on the circumstances. Only legal of the child is deemed mature enough and No other factors are at play. Still wrong, but hopefully not that big of a deal in practice as you can convict predators by other means.

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u/artavenue 4d ago

Correct, i decided to keep my post short. I snitch in that rammstein bit every time i can, because NO ONE talks about it. But: the circumstances part is not really that huge, of course, rape is illegal, i think one-night-stand intentions also (it has to be a real relationship?) and it can‘t be a teacher or something like that. Correct me if i am wrong, i looked into this years ago

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u/Balthasar-Hohenheim 4d ago

So the German age of consent is basically split into three stages. The base is that sexual contact to anyone below 14 is strictly illegal. The 14 here is not based on any "old christian rules" but is tied to the age of criminal responsibility. The idea is that two 14 year olds shouldn't be arrested for being in a relationship. Many states in the US had to introduce so called "Romeo and Juliet"-laws to deal with this. This age of consent is raised to 16 if the child is either too immature or uneducated. German sexual education seems to be considered to be sufficient education but that doesn't mean that this applies to the sexual education in other countries. While the age of 16 is also the age you can get married here, these rules are actually not directly related. 16 is just the age that people are considered mature enough to legally sign contracts, which is the prerequisite to get married (you still need the approval of the guardian). The actual protection for children is the third rule. Any relationship that involves a minor and that has a power imbalance/ any form of one sided dependency is illegal. This involves most adults that a child would normally have contact to like teachers, friends of family and strangers that give them gifts. Over the age of 18 you are an adult and can have any relationship you want (as long as it doesn't breach other laws). I'm not sure if this system is really the best and talks about lowering the age of criminal responsibility in recent years had me asking what that would mean for the age of consent but so far it works. Maybe we should have taken the opportunity to fully revamp the system when the gay paragraph was removed (as the last iteration raised the age of consent to 18 in same sex relationships).

Regardless I have to agree the no matter how well behaved the guy was in prison, one year for someone who actually raped anyone let alone a 12 year old child is way to little! Back in the late 90s there was a running joke in my class that you would get a longer prison sentence for copying infringements than for child rape and while this has somewhat improved since the sentence are still to low. Thought I guess the worst pedophiles never go to prison but straight to the asylum, so that might warp my perception a bit.

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u/thelastgozarian 3d ago

Not that it matters when it comes to fucking 12 yr olds because that's wrong 1000 perce t of the tjme but no, most places don't have Romeo and juliet "laws" but do operate under that precedent. That said there are certainly cases where someone has gotten fucked by the long hard dick of the law assuming it was totally cool to bone their 1 year younger s.o. Usually it's a way to fuck someone with priors, but plenty of places will say illegal is illegal even a year apart.

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u/Wonderful_Net_9131 4d ago

I seem to remember that relationship bit as well and noticed articles talking about that Lindemann incident speaking of a "relationship", tho I have a hard time believing it was actually that. when you're 21 and kinda immature you might have a true relationship with a mature 16yo... But your daughters best friend?

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u/artavenue 4d ago

She was 14 or 15, yeah. His daughter asked if her best friend can join. Lindemann kept this relationship alive until recently, even. The girl is now like 25+ old woman or something. He was also already super old when she was 15. 21 and 16 can be weird, but probably accepted. In my friend circle when i was a teenager i saw this sometimes happen. We were also friend with the 21 year old and no one was really educated. Big groups of teens hanging in the street. I think, in modern times the grooming online part just makes everything more secret and worse.

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u/mileswilliams 4d ago

The Dutch system focuses on rehabilitation not punishment. I think longer would have been appropriate.

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u/WolfetoneRebel 4d ago

Regardless, there is no way people should accept someone like that representing them on the world stage.

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u/mileswilliams 3d ago

For the sake of a huge laugh, please tell me you are American?

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u/airtime25 3d ago

You got down voted but we literally are going to have a rapist lead our country and we will have chose him twice lol while Americans are shaking in their boots that a criminal will be at the Olympics.

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u/WolfetoneRebel 3d ago

Why does it matter where I’m from?

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u/petit_cochon 4d ago

People go into therapy longer for slapping a classmate at school. Christ.

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u/Taolan13 4d ago

regular violence is worse than sexual violence just look at comparative sentencing.

woman kills her abusive husband or boyfriend in self defense and gets 20 years no parole despite an otherwise clean record.

a repeat offender on their sixth victim under 18 gets two years and probation.

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