Child Sexual Abuse: The Age of Consent
Age of Consent Laws and Close in Age or Romeo and Juliet Laws
Child Sexual Abuse: Age of Consent
The "age of consent" is not a moral or psychological term. It is a legal term for the age at which one is legally allowed to consent to have sex, or, as it is called in the European Union, "the legal age for sexual activities.
Now, that seems clear enough. There is an age at which one may legally consent to have sex. Younger than that, one is a victim of child sexual abuse, older, a predator.
Child Sexual Abuse: Geography
In the state of Florida, where I live, that age of consent is eighteen. In nearby Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, the age of consent is sixteen. So, let's say that two sexual partners, one seventeen years old and the other some years older, who live in Alabama decide to spend a weekend in the Florida Panhandle not many miles away. If they engage in sexual activity in Florida, the older partner could be found guilty of statutory rape.
Child Sexual Abuse: Statutory Rape
Even if the seventeen-year-old agrees to the sexual activity, for that matter, if anyone under the age of consent agrees to have sex with a person over the age of the consent, the act is statutory rape. In many places, that means, purely and simply, rape.
The thinking is that a person under the age of consent is not capable of giving informed consent. A half-hour's drive can make quite a difference, can't it? Somehow, a sixteen year old is capable of giving consent in Alabama but not in Florida.
Child Sexual Abuse: Parental Consent
But, what if your parents give you a written statement of permission? (If I have any teenage readers, I can imagine them saying, "Like that's ever going to happen.") What if your parents give you permission to drive before you are old enough to obtain a driver's license or to drink before you reach the legal age to drink? Parents cannot consent for you.
Child Sexual Abuse: Romeo and Juliet Laws
The age of consent in Florida is eighteen but comes with "close in age exemptions," also known as Romeo and Juliet laws, in honor of Shakespeare's teenage lovers. In Florida, that means that someone twenty-three years of age or younger may engage in legal sexual activity with a minor aged sixteen or older.
Child Sexual Abuse: Male or Female? Gay or Straight?
In some jurisdictions, there may be different ages of consent for males as well as for females. Also, in many jurisdictions, there may be a different age of consent and a different set of penalties for heterosexual and homosexual activity.
In 2001, in Kansas, a boy who had just turned eighteen was sentenced to a seventeen year prison term for having consensual sex with another boy who was fourteen. At the time, commentators noted that if the younger boy had been a girl, the older boy would have received no more than fifteen months in prison. The Kansas Court of Appeals let the sentence stand.
Child Sexual Abuse: Consent to What?
There may be different ages of consent to engage in sexual activity, to marry, and to appear in pornography.
Child Sexual Abuse: Problems with Consent
Whenever I write about child sexual abuse, I emphasize that I am not a professional - not a counselor, a therapist, a psychologist. Now, I have to add and emphasize that I am not an attorney. I took any specific legal information in this article from the following four resources. I do not know if the information was accurate at the time it was posted or if it is still valid.
The only fact a reader can take from this article is that there is a crazy quilt of laws regarding the age of consent in this country (and around the world, although I limited my commentary to the United States). I am simply reporting the situation here; I am not passing judgment on it.
If you are involved in a relationship or activities which fall into a gray area of legality, you have a responsibility to yourself and to your partner to do your research and know what the situation is in your jurisdiction.
Child Sexual Abuse: Age of Consent Resources
"Age of Consent" - here
"Ages of Consent in the United States" - here
"Prison Sentence for Gay Sex Upheld in Kansas" - here
"Romeo and Juliet Laws - What They Mean for Teens" - here
Published by Michael Segers
I'm old enough to know better, but too young to admit it. I've been a teacher, owner of a sandwich shop, collector of neckties, acupuncture student. Now I get bossed around by my parrot and rejoice that I d... View profile
- When Your Child is the Victim of Statutory Rape: What to DoIf your child is the victim of statutory rape, emotions will be running high and you might not be certain what to do. As a parent, however, it is your responsibility to act quickly in the interest of your child.
- Understanding Consent in Rape and Sex CrimesRead on to learn about the age of consent, the inability to consent, and the ways in which you can withdraw consent to sexual activity, as well as what the law says about rape and sex crimes.
- New Tool to Hunt Child Sex Predators Can Wipe Out Child Sexual Abuse in AmericaUp until less than 1% of child molesters have been convicted. But a new tool has emerged that allows law enforcement to find child predators, track them down, rescue American children, and prevent millions of future c...
- Child Sexual Abuse: Six MythsIf you are working with young people in an elite prep school or in a juvenile prison, you are working with someone who has been sexually abused.
- Child Sexual AbuseThis is a short overview of child sexual abuse. It points out some of the indicators of abuse and lists a group of people who been identified frequently as child sexual abusers.
- The Hidden Costs of Megan's Law: Enough is Enough
- Child Sexual Abuse Hysteria Takes Another Turn for the Worse
- Teaching Education and Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse
- Child Sexual Abuse and the Internet
- Warning Signs of Child Sexual Abuse
- King Denounces the King of Pop
- Impeachment of the President of the United States of America
41 Comments
Post a CommentDelete your junk mail folder.
Did you know that junk mail slows down system performance? Every time you receive an email (good or bad), that email is written to your hard drive. Not such a big deal, but 90% of the email that I receive is actually spam, and it just eats up hard drive space, and further fragments my hard drive. Usually before deleting my junk mail folder, I try to take a quick skim to see if it accidentally classified a good email as bad (the dreaded false positive). In the course of a month, I usually find about 1-2 good emails marked as spam.
We were told in adoption classes that we were taking that 13 was the age of consent in Ohio. We found that shocking. The instructor went on to say that if someone older than 18 had sex with someone who was 13 or older they could only be charged with a misdemeanor. I thought that was awful.
"it is mind boggling that the law can assume a person safe enough to trust behind the wheel of a car, but not with making their own sexual choices"
Even more ridiculous, the USA has little problem with an 18 year old joining the military. Then being shipped overseas to end some Non Americans life by blowing them into tiny pieces, but heaven forbid if someone a few months younger has sex with an older person. Of the two, which one will most likely scar you for the rest of your life?
I feel sorry for the 19 year-old who are considered pedophiles if they're in a relationship with a 17 year old. The law definitely needs to be changed.
Thank you, Michael for delving into this "crazy quilt" issue & providing links. I'm sure, like Rachel, most teens in love or just in lust, don't even think abt this. It's plain wrong that coupling can ruin the life of one, as if forcible rape was committed on a child. And I found that Kansas case of the young man given a 17 yr sentence for sex w/ a minor boy to be disturbingly skewed compared to if it had been a girl. And if it HAD been a girl, she could get pregnant, whereas the young boy isn't even vulnerable to that consequence. Crazy, frustrating laws! So glad you helped clarify some issues and provided the links.
I paid no attention to the laws when I was a teenager, so this is good information to pass along to my teenage son, who also would not be aware if he isn't told. A parent's job is never done! Great article.
Best thing to do is wait until mature, pick someone very carefully, and wed without indiscretions. Plain and simple! But many people are simple in a different kind of way...
Great article, Michael. I think I missed this when you first published it. The laws are very confusing...
You are right, it's a crazy quilt of laws, over a subject that needs looked at...it is mind boggling that the law can assume a person safe enough to trust behind the wheel of a car, but not with making their own sexual choices..
Very good job on this! Thorough and well-written info.