teen mothers who used justifications to account for their relationships with older men claimed responsibility for being involved with them , but denied that the relationship was deviant in any way . They used justifications to explain why dating this older person was "no big deal" The teen mothers who used justifications were either still dating their older boyfriends or had parted ways but were still on amicable terms. Because they felt that older boyfriend/younger girlfriend relationships were not deviant, and because they had come out of them unscathed, they viewed statutory rape laws as unnecessary. There was no victim, so there was no crime. Older boyfriends were simply that , boyfriends who happened to be older , and their justifications supported this belief that they were not engaging in deviant behavior.