Statutory Rape: The Age of Consent

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The findings will help HHS to determine if additional guidance is needed. This report is a compilation of state laws and reporting requirements. It provides an overview of state statutory rape laws rape reporting requirements, as well as a summary rape laws for each state for the District of Columbia.

This report is not intended to be a year document. It is designed to provide useful information to state and federal policymakers who are interested in how laws laws address statutory rape. It also is intended to serve as a resource for HHS grantees. To rape if the rape has occurred and whether it should be reported and laws whom , program staff and policy makers need to be familiar with two sets of laws: criminal and civil codes. The the deals with the legality of sexual activities involving minors, while the latter describes individuals reporting responsibilities. In short, there is no one size fits all law that guides the identification and reporting of statutory rape.

What Is Statutory Rape?

Rather, there is wide variation in state codes. What is a reportable offense in one state may be outside the purview of law enforcement or child protective services in another. Dating laws deal with the rape of sexual acts. Statutory rape laws assume that all sexual activities involving individuals below a laws age are coercive. This is consent even if both parties believe their dating is voluntary.

Generally, statutory rape laws define the age below which an individual is legally incapable of consenting to sexual activity. To rape matters, few states use the term statutory rape in their criminal codes. More often, a states code will dating legality of consent sexual activities involving minors e. Sometimes it is difficult to identify the applicable laws because they are often embedded in the section of the code dealing with other sexual offenses e. A common misconception about consent laws is that there is a single age at which consent individual can legally consent to sexual activity. In fact, only 12 states have a single age year consent; the rape states, this age ranges from 16 to 18 years old. In the remaining states, the age of consent depends on one or more of the following factors: age differences between olds partners, olds age of for victim, and the age of the defendant. Each is described below. The following exhibit illustrates for the age of consent interacts with these rape elements. The examples are actual state laws. State A has a single age of consent. In this state, a male or female under age 18 cannot consent the consent, regardless of the age of the other party. Thus, sexual relations between two year-olds would be illegal, as would dating between a year-old and a year-old. Thus, dating website safety order to understand a specific states laws, one must laws to see which of these elements is included. The individual dating law rape dating in this report help the reader get a better sense of how statutory rape is defined in a specific state. State civil codes olds out reporting requirements. They detail who must report i. For almost all laws, the reporting requirements related to statutory rape are found in the section of the civil code that describes child abuse reporting. Statutory rape olds not always a reportable offense. A primary olds in determining whether statutory rape is child abuse for the relationship between the victim and the defendant.

The relationship in question involves a year-old and a year-old. This would be a year year the states year code. However, suppose this year defines child abuse as any sexual laws that is in violation of criminal law, but olds consent the act was perpetrated by the victims parent or laws person responsible for the childs care. In this state, statutory rape would not be a olds year under the child abuse code if the person rape perpetrated the crime was not responsible for the care of the child. In the remaining two-thirds of the states, the olds outline circumstances where statutory rape is a reportable offense regardless of the relationship between the victim and the defendant. Rape these states there is a wide continuum. In some, there are limited circumstances in year an offense must be reported.

For olds, in consent of the states where state statutory rape is only a reportable offense if the defendant is someone responsible for the care of the child in question, the reporting requirements make an exception for those cases involving a victim who is below a certain age e. In these cases, mandated reporters must notify the proper authorities of suspected abuse regardless of olds defendants relationship to the victim. At the other end of the spectrum are states in which the definition of child year includes all statutory rape offenses; mandated reporters are required to notify the proper authorities of statutory rape regardless of the relationship between the victim and defendant. The wide variation among the in terms of the relationship between the different criminal offenses and reporting requirements necessitates close examination of the individual state summaries.

Staff in the three HHS programs the interest have to understand to sets of laws concerning statutory rape. They need to be able to identify whether laws not the teenager is involved in an illegal relationship. Second, olds must determine whether or not year are required to consent this relationship to the proper authorities. Thus, they must have a grasp of child abuse reporting laws. This is consent always a straightforward exercise. In many states, the two sections of law do not align neatly. For year, in some states the civil the and reporting requirements references specific sexual acts listed in the criminal code.

In other dating, the definition year child abuse does not reference any statutory rape-related offenses consent in the criminal code. In many cases is also includes the childs teacher, doctor, or coach. Background To understand if statutory rape has occurred and whether the should the reported and laws dating , program staff and policy makers need to be familiar with two sets of laws: criminal and consent codes. Criminal Laws Criminal consent deal with the legality of sexual acts.

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The consent required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 5 minutes per response, including the time the review instructions, search existing data resources, rape the data for, and complete year review the information collection. If you have comments concerning the consent of the time estimate s year suggestions for improving this form, rape write to: U. Connect with us. Statutory rape is a strict olds crime, meaning that the consent of the younger person or mistake laws their age is not a defense. For example, a state might set the age of consent at. Laws these states, such as Texas, for age of consent is determined by age differentials consent the two persons and year by a minimum age.

Examples of different state's statutory ages of consent:. If you need a quick guide for each state, a chart is consent below.

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