Also men over 20 years old are two and a half times responsible for as many births among high school girls as high school boys. California has been established as having the highest teen birth rate in the nation. Governor Wilson started the Statutory Rape Vertical Prosecution Program to combat this problem. This aggressive program will hopefully start to decrease the number of teens that are becoming pregnant by adult males. By making these males responsible both financially and criminally, the number of teens giving birth will be decreased and the cost to the state for these families will in turn start to be reduced.
Teens become involved in relationships with older males for a variety of reasons.
Two major reasons that girls become involved in these relationships is due to lack of communication between the teen and the parents, and the teen has been sexually abused in the past. When there is a lack of communication between the parents and the teen, the teen looks for someone who will listen to them and who can relate to what they are going through. Because these girls are vulnerable and looking for support, the males start off being their friend then manipulate the relationship into a sexual one before the girls realize what is happening. Such mistreatment may lead to many of the teens believing that they have little or no ability to make decisions that will have a positive effect in this life. Males often manipulate teens into a sexual relationship by exploiting feelings of low self-esteem.