preview

Legal Age Of Sexual Consent

Good Essays

Legal Age of Sexual Consent
Taylor Obert PSY 200B
March 16, 2017

Introduction Age of sexual consent refers to the age when an individual can consent to sexual activity. Sexual activities are defined differently by countries, with there even being a difference between the United States and Canada who share a border. The ages of consent also vary among countries and also by individual state in the United States. Engaging in sexually activities with individuals that are not the legal age of consent can result in criminal charges such as statutory rape, but many places have exceptions. These exceptions include certain gaps in age varying place to place, as well as the defense of not knowing the actual age of the victim. …show more content…

The states with the highest age of consent, which is 18 years old, are: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming (Barnett, 2016).
United States Age Gap Provisions and Mistake of Age Defense In some cases where the individual/victim is not the legal age of consent and/or the defendant is over the age of 18 than there may be an age gap provision of the law in the state that makes the offense less of a crime because of the age gap, but it can still be prosecuted. The states that have the age gap provisions are: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. No age gap provision in any state allows the defendant to be more than 4 years older than the other party (“Age of Consent Chart”, 2017). In the United States, there are provisions called Romeo and Juliet Laws, which were made known by Texas. The purpose of the Romeo and Juliet Laws is to prevent an individual from being charged with a criminal offense and/or having to register as a sex offender because they engage in sexual

Get Access