In this article, I use Scott and Lyman's two forms of accounts as an organizing framework to conceptualize the different explanations given by teenage mothers regarding their involvement with older boyfriends. Their framework is helpful for two important reasons. First, it takes into consideration that the accounts are reactive (i.e.,employed after the deviance has occurred) . Second this framework distinguishes between people who view the act as deviant and those who do not , as well as between people who assume and deny responsibility for their behavior, a source of significant variation among the teenage mothers I spoke with about statutory rape.