My cousin is in prison for knocking up a 12 year old, if that counts. She had the baby. My cousin gets out very soon. While in prison, he's seen his kid.
I felt bad for him because he didn't need to be in prison. The child looses a father, and the money from having a job. The mother lost any help from the father. It was a no win situation.
The family doesn't hate him. The fucked up thing is...and I hate to say this...my grandma knew this was going to happen.

How old was your cousin?

21

How do you think situations like that should be dealt with other than prison time?

In the case of this matter, it's probably not like what else you'll find. First, I come from a place where we deal with our own problems. We don't look for outside arbitration. Outsiders don't understand our culture, our customs. So, right off, police are usually out of the question.
Second. In this case, and I know this is gonna sound bad. There was nothing to deal with. No crime was commited, so prison was not needed.
My cousion is still the baby's father. The mother went on to have another child...it didn't stop her from fucking anyway. She's not somehow scarred or forever tainted. Life moved on.
In my cusions case, he should have just been forced to work. To pay for his child. Anyhow, there are a lot of other other missing info I cannot began to touch on. But long story short, prison wasn't going to somehow makes things better, but a job would.

What makes you believe that this was not a crime?

Well, techincally speaking it was a crime according to the state. From a personal standpoint, it wasn't because morality is culurally based and what is bad to me ins't bad to the next person, and what is bad to the next person might not be bad to me.
Moral relativism is the view that ethical standards, morality, and positions of right or wrong are culturally based and therefore subject to a person's individual choice. We can all decide what is right for ourselves.