In this state, changing baby's diapers could land you IN JAIL

By Web Report

Published: Mon 19 Sep 2016, 6:59 PM

Last updated: Tue 20 Sep 2016, 3:02 AM

In a shocking court ruling, changing your baby's diaper or giving it a bath in the American state of Arizona can land you in jail.
Slate reports that the Arizona Supreme Court has issued a decision that allows the state's law to criminalise any contact between an adult and a child's genitals, attracting charges of child molestation.
The report goes on to call it a mixture of "bad legislating and terrible judging".
This law has been amended after a case involving an Arizona man and his step-daughter did not make it past the judge for an appeal. 
The Daily Mail reports that the court ruled any sexual contact with a minor is molestation or sexual abuse. 
The ruling stated, "A person commits molestation of a child by intentionally or knowingly engaging in or causing a person to engage in sexual contact, except sexual contact with the female breast, with a child who is under fifteen years of age."
Legal analyst Monica Lindstrom told KSAZ that "The statue says intentionally or knowingly having sexual contact. Well sexual contact is just the direct or indirect touching of the genital of something else of the child. That is where the changing of the diaper could come into play."

But The Independent points out judges who have disagreed with the verdict saying, "Parents and other caregivers who have changed an infant's soiled diaper or bathed a toddler will be surprised to learn that they have committed a class 2 or 3 felony."

Read more...
Web Report

Published: Mon 19 Sep 2016, 6:59 PM

Last updated: Tue 20 Sep 2016, 3:02 AM

Recommended for you