Age of consent

While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes , when used with reference to criminal law the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be capable of legally giving informed consent to any contract or behaviour regulated by law with another person. This article refers specifically to those laws regulating sexual acts. This should not be confused with the age of majority or age of criminal responsibility or the marriageable age. The age of consent varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction e are many grey areas in this area of law, some regarding unspecific and untried legislation, others brought about by debates regarding changing societal attitudes and others due to conflicts between federal and state

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While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes , when used with reference to criminal law the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be capable of legally giving informed consent to any contract or behaviour regulated by law with another person. This article refers specifically to those laws regulating sexual acts. This should not be confused with the age of majority or age of criminal responsibility or the marriageable age.

The age of consent varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction e are many grey areas in this area of law, some regarding unspecific and untried legislation, others brought about by debates regarding changing societal attitudes and others due to conflicts between federal and state laws. These factors all make age of consent an often confusing subject and a topic of highly charged debates cial attitudes

Social attitudes toward the appropriate age of consent have drifted upwards in modern times; while ages from ten through to thirteen were typically acceptable in the mid-Nineteenth Century oral philosophy

The general moral philosophy behind AoC laws is the assumed need for the protection of minors. It is a common belief in many societies that minors below a certain age lack the maturity and/or life experience to fully understand the ramifications of engaging in sexual acts. These fears may include but are not limited to resulting pregnancies and psychological or physical damage. There is an ongoing debate in many cultures regarding child sexuality as it relates to age and an appropriate age of consent eligious basis

Many legal systems refer to or are informed by the moral viewpoint of lawmakers, or refer to or appeal to cultural and religious norms. For example the Common law systems practised in the United Kingdom United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country and sovereign state [i] tha ...

and its former colonies were developed in the context of Christian values and Western Philosophy. Similarly the Laws in many Muslim based countries are based on the Qur'an Qur'an

The Qur'an , is the central religious text [i] of Islam [i]. ...

and the resulting Sharia. In some legal systems secular Secularism

Secularity is the state of being free from religious [i] or spiritual [i] qualities. ...

philosophies form part of the culture and likewise are part of the context in which the laws are formed, sometimes leading to changes in the law of previous periods. Difference in opinion between various religious and secular groups forms a part of the cultural context of AoC.

Law

Sexual relations with a person under the age of consent is in general a criminal offence, with punishments ranging from token fines to life imprisonment. Many different terms exist for the charges laid and include statutory rape, illegal carnal knowledge or corruption of a minor enforcement practises of AoC 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 . The gender Gender

The word gender describes the state of being male [i], female [i], or neither. ...

of each actor can also influence perceptions of an individual's guilt and therefore enforcement he [US] 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.

Enforcement is more likely in the case of a larger age gap in North America; furthermore, laws are becoming more explicit about prohibiting sex between minors and authority figures, even when the act would otherwise be legal.

Close in age exceptions

While some legislation dealing with age of consent sets a hard and fast age under which sexual relations are prohibited, some jurisdictions have included exceptions to this. The exception can take the form of a defence at trial on the grounds of the close age of the participants, or can be an actual close in age exemption in the law negating any charges. The latter details acceptable age ranges for consensual sex between peers that otherwise would not be legal because one or both of the participants would be below the age of consent. The age differences of these two types of legislation vary by jurisdiction, from as low as one year to as high as ten years .

Defences

The AoC is a legal barrier to the minor being able to give consent and as such obtaining consent is not in general a defence to having sexual relations with a person under the prescribed age. However, there are some defences in some jurisdictions; common examples include;

Limited mistake of age - Where the accused can show mistaken belief that the victim was not under the age of consent. However, where such a defence is provided, it normally applies only when the victim is close to the AoC or the accused can show due diligence in determining the age of the victim.
Marriage - In those jurisdictions where the marriageable age is less than the age of consent.

These different defences can change dramatically from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, even between neighbouring states of the same union with the same AoC.

Extraterritoriality

Increasingly the age of consent laws of a state apply not only to acts committed on its own territory, but also acts committed by its nationals and/or inhabitants on foreign territoryomosexual and heterosexual age discrepancies in law

Some jurisdictions have a different age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual Homosexuality

Homosexuality refers to sexual [i] and romantic [i] attraction between t ...

intercourse; some jurisdictions outlaw homosexual intercourse altogether. These disparities are increasingly being challenged. Cases such as Lawrence v. Texas Lawrence v. Texas

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 [i], was a landmark United States Supreme Court [i] ...

in the Supreme Court of the United States Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body [i] in the United States [i] ...

and Morris v. The United Kingdom in the European Court of Human Rights European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights , often referred to informally as the "Strasbourg Court", was created...

have set precedents for international law.

Other concerns

Marriage

The age at which a person can be legally married can also differ from the age of consent. In some jurisdictions this can negate the age of consent laws where the marriageable age is lower than the age of consent, but in others it does not. Further still, some jurisdictions have no actual age of consent but require persons to be married before they can legally engage in sexual activity.

Prostitution

The age at which a person can engage in prostitution is often set at the age of majority rather than at the AoC. This is possibly due to the legal nature of contract as well as moral reasons.

Statutory rape

Where a jurisdiction's age of consent laws for sexual activity treat those convicted of those laws with the same severity as criminal rape Rape

Rape is the act of forcing penetrative [i] sexual act [i]s, against another's will th ...

the law is often referred to as statutory rape. This is an emotive title to some who view the age of consent laws as lesser crimes or as no crime at all. The different titles of age of consent laws include statutory rape, rape of a child, corruption of a minor, carnal knowledge of a minor and so on. However, in the vernacular many of these terms are interchangeable and little differentiation is made.

Initiatives to change the age of consent

Age of consent reform refers to the efforts of some individuals or groups, for different reasons and with varying arguments, to raise, lower, abolish or otherwise alter age of consent laws. These efforts advocate five main positions:
An introduction of close-in-age exemptions.
A change in the way age of consent laws are examined in court.
An increase in the ages of consent, more severe penalties for violation of these laws or both.
A decrease in the ages of consent, less severe penalties for violation of these laws or both.
To abolish the age of consent laws altogether or as a temporary practical expedient.

There is an ongoing debate over these laws. However, critics on both sides of these arguments are often arguing at cross purposes due to their differences in defining what exactly the age of consent laws are to achieve and who they are intended to protect. For example those advocating close in age exceptions may be held up by their opponents as contradicting the protective nature of the age of consent law.
Historical study demonstrates that minimum age laws, which in English law originally applied only to girls, were not initially created with a rationale focussing on the competence and consent of an individual female child, but rather with a focus upon the changing physical body of a child, understood within a framework of patriarchal family property relations in which men were understood to own wives and children. many contemporary commentators focus on 'consent' as the appropriate rationale for determining minimum age laws, and hence 'age of consent' laws have increasingly been perceived as representing and embodying a focus on 'consent', Matthew Waites has recently argued that this reflects a preoccupation with the individual's psychological competence and consent among legal theorists, and a lack of sociologically informed discussion and appreciation of issues of social structure. Waites argues that the rationale for minimum age laws may be more appropriately determined via analysis of the situation of young people as embodied subjects in the context of various institutional and social power relations, rather than via a focus on the understanding of these power relations by young people themselves which tends to dominate debates over such laws. es of consent in various countries

Specific jurisdictions' laws relating to Age of Consent can be found on the following pages:

Listed by geographic region

__ Africa

__ Asia

__ Australia and Pacific Region

__ Europe

__ North America

__ South America

__ Under the Antarctic Treaty Antarctic Treaty System

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ...

, scientists and support staff stationed there are subject to the laws of the party of which they are nationals. Other visitors to the continent may need to follow the laws of the country in which their expedition is organised, or the country from which it departs.