Should we press charges?

There has been much gossip and discussion around the pregnancy of 16-year old Jamie Lynn Spears since her boyfriend is several years older. Some pundits are saying that the boy should be charged with Statutory Rape. Regardless of your opinion on the Spears' matter, the law is different in every state and there is no single definition of the age of consent for sexual activity. Read this 2003 overview of state laws, from which the following quote is extracted:

Most states do not refer specifically to statutory rape; instead they use designations such as sexual assault and sexual abuse to identify prohibited activity. Regardless of the designation, these crimes are based on the premise that until a person reaches a certain age, he is legally incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse. Thus, instead of including force as a criminal element, theses crimes make it illegal for anyone to engage in sexual intercourse with anyone below a certain age, other than his spouse.

Under some very particular conditions, health care workers, social workers, and others are required to report underage sexual activity as child abuse. Read this 2004 Report which also details the conditions that must be met for an incident to be legally considered statuatory rape (see in particular, the state-by-state summary).

If your situation fits the requirements for your state, then pray, seek counsel (legal counsel and mental/spiritual health counseling), and spend a lot of time talking with your daughter before taking the serious step of pressing charges. Your situation may or may not warrant criminal charges against the father of your daughter's baby, so consider any action with the help of professionals who understand all the nuances. Certainly if your daughter is pregnant because of a coersive, abusive and/or illegal situation, get her the counseling she needs and investigate whether any steps need to be taken to increase her physical safety.