Examples of the legal age of consent in different countries: “Age of consent”. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/age%20of%20consent. Retrieved 4 January 2022. In some countries, states or other jurisdictions, the age of consent may be lower than the age at which a person can appear in pornographic images and films. In many countries, the minimum age to participate and even view these documents is 18. As a result, in some jurisdictions, films and images depicting persons under the age of 18 but above the age of consent that meet the legal definition of child pornography are prohibited, even though the sexual acts depicted are legal under that jurisdiction`s age of consent laws. In these cases, only filming the sexual act is the crime, since the act itself is not considered a sex crime. For example, in the United States, filming minors under the age of 18 engaging in sexual acts, even in states where the age of consent is less than 18, is a crime under federal law. [42] In these states, charges such as child pornography can be used to prosecute a person who has sex with a minor who otherwise could not be prosecuted for rape, provided they filmed or photographed the act. [52] 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.
An increasing number of countries have specific extraterritorial laws that prosecute their citizens in their home country if they engage in illegal sexual acts with children in a foreign country. In 2008, ECPAT reported that 44 countries had extraterritorial laws on child sexuality. [40] For example, the PROTECT Act of 2003, a U.S. federal law, prohibits its citizens from sexual activity with strangers or with U.S. citizens of another state if the partner is under the age of 18 and the activity is illegal under federal, state, or local law. This applies in cases where one of the partners is traveling to or from the United States or from one state to another for the purpose of an illegal sexual relationship. [41] [42] In the United States, laws defining consent and age of consent differ from state to state. The national median age is 16 years. In Arkansas, the age of consent is 15, while in Oregon, the age of consent is 18.
The Statute of the International Criminal Court does not provide for a specific age of consent in its Statute on Rape and Sexual Violence, but refers to sexual acts committed against persons who are “unable to give meaningful consent”; and the explanatory note states: “For greater certainty, a person may not be able to give meaningful consent if he or she has a natural, induced or age-related disability.” (see note 51) [24] Unlike most rape laws, where violence is a key element of the crime, 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 many states, people under the age of 18 have the legal right to access many reproductive health services without the consent of a parent or guardian. Fewer states allow a minor to perform an abortion without the consent of a parent or guardian. 14 It is illegal to engage in a sexual act with a person under the age of 14, regardless of the age of the accused. However, sexual contact or sexual contact with anyone under the age of 14 is legal in certain circumstances. 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). English common law had traditionally set the age of consent at between ten and twelve, but the Offences Against the Person Act 1875 raised the age to thirteen in Britain and Ireland. Early feminists in the social purity movement, such as Josephine Butler and others who helped repeal the communicable disease laws, began addressing the problem of child prostitution in the late 1870s.
Sensational media revelations about the scourge of child prostitution in London in the 1880s then provoked outrage from the respectable middle class, leading to pressure to raise the age of consent again. Consent means that you freely consent to engage in sexual activity. A person may be considered incapable of consenting if he/she: A general change in social and legal attitudes towards gender issues has taken place in modern times. Attitudes toward the appropriate age to allow women to engage in sexual activity drifted into adulthood. While the age of ten to thirteen was generally considered an acceptable age for sexual consent in Western countries in the mid-19th century,[1] the change in attitudes towards sexuality and childhood led to the increase in the age of consent in the late 19th century. [5] As shown in the first column of Table 1, the age of consent varies across countries. In most states (34), he is 16 years old. In other countries, the age of consent is 17 or 18 (6 and 11 states respectively).
Most often, however, all acts are illegal (with the same age requirements), but the severity of the penalty differs depending on the type of sexual activity. In Kentucky, for example, sexual activity with children under the age of 12 is illegal, regardless of the age of the accused. If the activities involve sexual contact, the accused is guilty of first-degree sexual assault (Class D felony); if it is sexual intercourse, the accused is guilty of first-degree rape (a Class A felony). Investigative journalist William Thomas Stead of the Pall Mall Gazette was instrumental in exposing the problem of child prostitution in the London underworld through a publicity stunt. In 1885, he “bought” a victim, Eliza Armstrong, the thirteen-year-old daughter of a chimney sweep, for five pounds and took her to a brothel, where she was drugged. He then published a series of four lectures entitled The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, which shocked readers with stories about child prostitution and the abduction, supply and sale of young English virgins to continental “pleasure palaces”.