Legal Age of Statutory Rape

Each state`s reporting obligations identify specific individuals who are required to inform authorities of alleged abuses. Although it varies from state to state, mandated rapporteurs are usually people who meet children through their professional abilities. In Pennsylvania, the law requires everyone who faces abuse because of their job skills to report it. More commonly, a state law refers to a number of specific professions.29 Common occupations include: physical and mental health care providers, teachers, child care providers, legal professionals (e.g. judges, judges, lawyers, law enforcement officers), clergy, and government officials who care for children and families.30 In addition, some states designate anyone who cares for or deals with children as a mandatory reporter (e.g., Alabama, Missouri, Montana). In 18 states, anyone suspected of having been abused must notify the appropriate authorities.31 In states where the definition of child abuse does not explicitly refer to lawful rape, discrepancies between the legality of certain sexual activities and whether they are reportable crimes. Let`s take the following examples: for the sake of clarity, the report also uses uniform labels for participants in the offences discussed. The term “accused” refers to the accused or person who would be prosecuted under the law in question. “Victim” means the person against whom the act is alleged to have been committed. While these terms may be overly simplistic, they communicate the legal role that each party plays in relation to the laws discussed in the report.

[6] Oberman notes that the rise of feminism has greatly influenced changes to legal rape laws. The laws remained largely unchanged until the late 19th century, when feminists sought to raise the age of consent to protect young women from potentially forced relationships. As a result of these efforts, the average age of consent has increased from 12 to 18. The age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is legally old enough to consent to participate in sexual activity with a partner who is eighteen years of age or older. Simply put, if a person is fifteen or younger, they are not legally old enough to consent to participate in sexual activity. Age difference. In 27 countries, the legality of sexual intercourse with minors is based, at least in certain circumstances, on the age difference between the two parties (see third column of table 1). In 12 of these states, legality is based solely on the age difference between the two parties. For example, if a person sixteen or younger chooses to marry someone their age, they must obtain a court order for marriage and sexual interference to be legal. 22 Most laws classify crimes according to the gravity of the crime (e.g., 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree rape).

State summaries identify cases where the gravity of a particular crime varies according to the age of the accused. For example, Georgian law considers the crime of legal rape to be a crime, unless the victim is 14 or 15 years old (the age of consent is 16) and the accused is not older than the victim, in which case the crime is only a misdemeanor. As mentioned earlier, most states do not have laws that explicitly use the term “lawful rape”; only five contain the offense of legal rape.20 More commonly, state laws contain a variety of crimes related to intentional sexual activity with minors. In New Jersey, for example, sexual activity with minors is treated in three crimes: criminal sexual contact, sexual assault, and aggravated sexual assault. The age of the victim and accused, as well as the type of sexual activity, determine which offence the conduct falls under. 10 In some cases, a state`s laws on sexual intercourse do not coincide with one or more of its laws on other types of sexual acts. For example, in South Dakota, sexual penetration with a person between the ages of 10 and 16 is illegal unless the defendant is less than 3 years older than the victim. However, sexual interference with a person under the age of 16 is unlawful regardless of the age of the defendant (in State v. Darby, 556 N.W.2d 311, 127 (SD 1996), the South Dakota Supreme Court held that these two offences could be mutually exclusive). These cases are identified in the corresponding situation summaries.

For England and Wales, the legal framework of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 distinguishes between sexual contact with children under the age of 13 and sexual interference with children under the age of 13. [35] Some jurisdictions have enacted “Romeo and Juliet laws” that serve to reduce or eliminate the penalty for the crime in cases where the couple`s age difference is small and the sexual interference would not have been rape if both partners had been legally able to give consent. [18] These laws vary, but may include: Another argument advanced to defend legal rape laws concerns the difficulty of prosecuting rape (against a victim of any age) in the courtroom. Because forced sexual intercourse with a minor is considered a particularly heinous form of rape, these laws relieve law enforcement of the burden of proof of lack of consent. As a result, convictions are more frequent in cases involving minors. [13] What happens if one partner is fifteen years and eleven months old and the other partner is over sixteen years old? Since the youngest partner is not yet 16, the oldest partner can be charged with legal rape. There are no age-related exceptions to Washington`s law unless the couple is married. State laws dealing with sexual activity with minors are generally included in the section of the penal code that deals with sexual offenses. Each state summary (section III) contains a table listing all the crimes in the law that deal with legal rape.

Unlike most rape laws, where violence is a key element of the crime, legal rape laws assume that any sexual activity with people under a certain age constitutes coercion, even if both parties believe their participation is voluntary. In general, legal rape laws define the age at which a person is legally incapable of consenting to sexual activity. For example, the Idaho Supreme Court has defined the ability to give legal consent, including: (1) the ability to recognize the potential consequences of sexual intercourse and, given that understanding, (2) the ability to make a conscious choice. [4] In some cases, legal rape provisions are incorporated into rape or sexual assault laws that generally apply to violent crimes. For example, New Hampshire defines “criminal sexual assault” as intentional sexual penetration with a person who is at least 13 years of age and under 16 years of age, as well as acts involving the use of physical violence, regardless of the age of either party. Other states have separate crimes specifically related to sexual crimes involving minors. For example, Alaska`s law includes four offenses specifically related to the sexual abuse of a minor. Legal rape laws have evolved as a result of reforms over the past 30 years. For example, the issue was raised during debates on social reform in the mid-1990s, when some lawmakers suggested that stricter enforcement of legal rape laws could help reduce teen pregnancy rates.

9 Although the federal government`s jurisdiction is limited, the United States Code contains statutory rape laws. See 18 U.S.C.A. § 2241 and § 2243. As mentioned above, few states use the term legal rape in their codes. Instead, penal codes determine the legality of certain sexual acts. Current legislation is often incorporated into the section of the Code dealing with other sexual offences (e.g., sexual assault, violent rape).