wow. i agree that what he did was pretty terrible, but 15-years-in-prison-terrible? i dunno...does that seem awfully, AWFULLY harsh to anyone else?

@1 30 Victims means he did it over a period of time and had a long history of premeditated crimes. This is what long sentences are for. Now I disagree with many long sentences but this is pretty much the exact case that the system goes after for long sentences.

Obviously, if it HAD been a girl, and she had ridden the wangs of those 30 fine upstanding leaders of tomorrow, we would never have known of it.

15 years does seem long at his age, but I agree that he deserves a harsh punishment. Anyone who blackmails other people for sex (especially for an ongoing period) has got to be an actually wicked person. I do believe that there are some people who are just bad people, plain and simple. Not that keeping him in a jail for several years is likely to help the situation, though.

Just a point of order here: If he had blackmailed 30 high school *girls* for sex in this way, I don't think we'd be hearing anyone say that 15 years seems long. I think we'd be calling for his immediate castration. Sorry guys, sexual assault is sexual assault, rape is rape. I say lock this fucker up.

On first thought, I too thought 15 years is too long, but then again I remembered that coercing others into sex also goes by the name of rape.

And since he's only going to serve a part of that sentence anyway, I am no longer so worried about the length of his sentence.

Seems very harsh to me, too. People get less for rape!
Also, I'm genuinly surprised that his trick worked... hetero dudes actually had sex with him to avoid their pictures being published? Weird...

@1: he's a serial rapist. 15 years is quite appropriate, since he'll probably only serve half that.

paybacks a bitch

Frankly I think it's a fair punishment. And sadly he will do something much worse when he is out of prison. This is a predator who will continue to become more and more of a monster in time.

And also just another reason why I'd rather cut my dick off before getting a Facebook account. Seriously, go out into the real world and meet people face to face!!

Really? 15 years too long? For a serial rapist?

You guys really scare me sometimes.

It's a dumb sentence and blatantly homo and sexphobic. This kid is a twisted little fuck but tricking dumb and/or confused teenaged peers ISN'T the same as rape.

@14, well he's gay so you know.....

Think about it this way: that's only 6 months per victim.

@15 I can only hope then that you have a loved one that is coerced into an unwanted sexual encounter....since it's not so bad.

On second thought, no, i wouldn't wish rape on anybody.

What I don't get is: these boys each had a choice between a) some people they knew seeing them naked and b) getting fucked in the ass... Just how ludicrously self-conscious do you have to be to choose option b)? One is embarassment for a few months, the other is something you have to live with the rest of your life.

People REALLY need to make a distinction between an 'unwanted sexual encounter' and rape.
Rape is a pretty violent affair. This is icky behavior. (It's definitely stronger than: " I paid for the drinks so you should give me a BJ"; but that happens all the time.)

I don't understand how this could have gone on with over 30 kids! I'm happy to say that as twisted as my kids are; they're not going to get blackmailed into a blowjob over a nudie picture on the internet!

15 years is too long. This will totally ruin his life. (I myself have definitely 'pressured' people into sexual acts at that age; wasn't exactly blackmail though. I had a horny little christian girl I dated at the time and she wouldn't do it without being 'pressured'. Come to think of it; that was her big turn on I think...) 5 years should be enough. In those 5 years he will probably witness the horrors of ACTUAL rape.
Unfortunately he doesn't deserve that either. (I don't really get the male prison rape jokes. Why do people seem to think it's okay for that to be part of a sentence?)
Note: In wealthy nations the male prison rapes are pretty much a uniquely American phenomenon. Something else to be proud of...

yeah, i think what he did is wrong, but then again, the idiots who sent their naked pictures to someone they didn't know online, and then when confronted about it let themselves be used for sex? i don't blame them for what happened, but they definitely had an option here.

also, only 7 of the boys had sex with him, so it wasn't 30 people. which makes me wonder what happened to the other 24 people (31 people sent their picture in total).

@15 homophobic? Really? If he had done this to four or five girls he'd be looking at the same sentence. I think he's getting off easy and my worry isn't that his sentence was caused by homo and sexphobia; my worry is some conservative will pick this up and use it to prove that gays can get away with 30 cases of rape where a straight boy would have faced life imprisonment. That's the story I see coming out of this and that really scares me.

@21 you don't have to understand coerced sex for it to be coerced sex. the fact that it worked on so many boys shows how effective the method was. and coerced sex is generally considered a form of rape.

@22 it is ignorant to equate consent due to pressure during foreplay with coercion. if the consent is due to the one consenting freely choosing, it is okay. if the "consent" is due to blackmail, or duress, it is not not okay. even your "innocent" story may cross the line: you have to assume she wanted you to "convince" her. unless you know that to be true because of her confirmation, you really only have your opinion to go on. it is unfortunate that some girls like to be talked into having sex justifies some people's belief that everyone wants to be talked into having sex.

Why would some of the victims have needed hospitalization?

@23

I'm not blaming the victim, but she shouldn't have worn that dress. I'm not blaming the victim, but she should not have been drinking. I'm not blaming the victim, but she should have not walking alone at night. I'm not blaming the victim, etc. etc. etc.

Apparently he's previously pleaded guilty to two felonies, including repeated sexual assault of a child.

@ 21 I'm thinking the exact same thing.

I'm wondering how many of the victims actually went through with the act. If that number is high I'm inclined to think that he was targeting peers he thought could be gay or at least curious. Teenage boys are not ones to decide to go for 'teh butt seks' at the drop of a hat or because of paltry blackmail.

I'm not saying that if the victims were gay or bi that it was right for them to be targeted or not a big deal that they were targeted or that because of their sexual orientation their paying the blackmail isn't a big deal but I'm just wondering what's up.

@28: i don't see how that has any parallels. here, a guy was like "have sex with me or i'll blackmail you." rape doesn't often give options. it still isn't right or good and he should be punished, but i think morally and legally it is distinguishable from rape. also, what part of what i said do you disagree with?

Reminder...6 months for each case of blackmail AND coerced sex...

@28 She SHOULDN'T have been walking home alone at night. And neither should HE (as a victim).

No parallels?

Rape:

–noun
1.
the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.

2.
any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person

Key word? DURESS.

Also, you said you don't blame the victims for what happened, and then immediately proceeded to blame the victims.

@30 yes, you are saying that. you say it right in your email, "I'm inclined to think that he was targeting peers he thought could be gay or at least curious." And what you do you mean you are just wondering "what's up?" what's up is a manipulative criminal took advantage of at least seven boys because he found those who were susceptible to his plot. your comment is one of the worst in quietly normalizing what this cretin did.

@31 rape doesn't give options? are you serious? first off, a person almost always has "options," and secondly, do you not understand the concepts of blackmail or duress?

maybe i need to stop reading this thread....

@21: How ludicrously self-conscious? They're teenagers. Public humiliation, even minor, is a different order from private anguish. I agree with you it's not the smart thing to do, but I'm imagining that maybe for some of the victims, submitting to the blackmail at least gave them a semblance of choice or control, even if co-erced. Secrets they could keep.

@31: The option in many rape cases is "don't fight me or I'll beat/kill/disfigure you." It's a question I've asked myself sometimes, to fuck with myself: Would I rather lose an eye to a rapist, or try and recover from the rape? Could I balance a *possibility* of some recovery with something I lose forever?

Were the "victims" punished for producing and trafficking child pornography? Cause, they're sorta at fault here too...

@37. just how are the kids who were victimized at fault for being raped? how?

if you are one of those people who think it should be illegal and severely punished for kids to send other kids pics of themselves, i'm not sure i want to respond to you at all. but even so, removing the fact that they are kids, the action of blackmailing with photographs is not diminished in ANY WAY by the fact that the photographs were provided by the victims. that does not suddenly undue their victimization, especially considering the photographs were exchanged under false pretenses.

Ok,here we go!

Half of slog says "I wish I thought of that in High School" and the other half admonishes the first half for making light of rape for 38 posts ad nauseum .

And....GO

Laws like this were passed precisely because blackmailing someone into sex didn't used to be conceived of as sexual assault, just a rather nasty form of seduction.

I think the sentence might be somewhat long, but what this kid did was incredibly reprehensible. If Stancl were straight, and the victims were female, I think the commentors would have a much less difficult time understanding what he did as, if not rape, then at least sexual assault. (And yes, the law *does* provide for various degrees of sexual assault.)