We are probably quite familiar with "kri-kesiv" anomalies, where Hashem determined that we should read the Torah text differently from the way He asked us to record in writing. Nevertheless I am sure that we are all puzzled by the frequent and consistent "na'ar -na'aroh" swap that has such high profile in much of the parsha. Obviously, the "na'aroh", the woman, is the victim throughout the parshios that discuss vulgar and violent acts of decadence and their consequences and punishments. Yet by repeatedly removing the "heh" from the word "naaroh", the written text continuously records the "na'ar", the man, as the victim of the very crimes that he has perpetrated.
Perhaps the Torah is indicating to us that sometimes the criminal and the victim are not as indistinguishable as they seem to be. Though there is no room in the Torah to acquit the "na'ar" the criminal, we still would do well to recognize that he too is often reacting to an atmosphere and is the victim of a culture that he did not create. As we defend the "na'aroh" and seek her welfare and that of her peers, we must as well, address the "na'ar" whose necessary responsibility for his actions often obscures that their roots are well nurtured by the promiscuity that surrounds them.
Decadent behavior, from publicly alleging the infidelity of one's new wife to physically violating another, thrives on a culture that has none if few standards of acceptable dress, entertainment or language and practices little restraint in gratification. In our time this has become an uncomfortable and unpopular truth. Yet the Torah by allowing the identities of the criminal and victim to converge, begs us, without for a moment letting the criminal off the hook, to honestly address the culture in which we find ourselves hoping that will surely lead to a nobler environment.