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Age of Consent: Laws
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The purpose of age of consent legislation is to protect vulnerable young people from sexual exploitation and abuse. The current legislation presupposes that young men require greater protection from unwanted sexual advances than do young women. The Royal College of Psychiatrists stated in their response to the 1976 Criminal Law Review Committee:
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The enforcement practices of age of consent laws tend to vary depending on the social sensibilities of the particular culture. Often enforcement is not exercised to the letter of the law, with legal action being taken only when a sufficiently socially-unacceptable age gap exists between the two individuals, or if the perpetrator is in a position of authority over the minor (e.g. a teacher, priest or doctor). The sex of each participant ... influences perceptions of an individual's guilt and therefore enforcement. "The Supreme Court has held that stricter rules for males do not violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution, on the theory that men lack the disincentives associated with pregnancy that women have to engage in sexual activity, and the law may thus provide men with those disincentives in the form of criminal sanctions."
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The age of consent is the age at which a young person is legally able to understand and agree to consensual sex. In most countries, until you reach this age it is illegal for somebody to have sex with you... old they may be. Sometimes the law is slightly different when the partners are of a similar age, but there is usually still a minimum age below which sex is always illegal.
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The penalties for violating the Maine age of consent laws are harsh. Under Maine law, the crime of gross sexual assault occurs when a person has sexual intercourse with someone under the age of 14. The sentence for this crime is up to 40 years in prison.
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Kansas courts, since 1913, have declared that the common law age of consent for marriage is 14 for boys and 12 for girls, and that they do not need the permission of their parents. Lawmakers hope that bills introduced in the legislature would stop common law marriages in the state.
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There are therefore an almost infinite number of ways in which age of consent laws can be reformed. It is less important to know the age details of each rule in each country (16 years? 13 years? 14? 15?). It is instead very important to think about the ‘basic’, ‘plus’, and ‘minus’ ideas in age of consent laws (such as, should it be a defence if someone had sex with a really, really young girl but really, really, really believed she was above the legal age of consent?).
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