(E)  Alternative Dispositions.  Criminal defense counsel should continue to treat statutory rape even of an older minor as sexual abuse of a minor and seek an alternate disposition.  As an example, advocates in California have identified such possible alternate pleas as false imprisonment (without violence or menace),[858] simple battery,[859] annoying or molesting a child (which requires registration as a sex offender),[860] or attempt to persuade someone not to file a police report (a strike).[861]  See generally Chart and “Note: Safer Pleas” at http://www.ilrc.org/criminal.html.  If there is a statutory rape conviction, there may be some benefit in amending the charge to which a plea is entered so the record of conviction does not show the age of the victim if the victim is under age 16.

[858] California Penal Code § 236.

[859] California Penal Code § 243(a).

[860] California Penal Code § 646.7(a).

[861] California Penal Code § 136.1(b).