 |
This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Age of consent" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Incriminal 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 majorityorage of criminal responsibility or the marriageable age.
The age of consent varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The median seems to range from fourteen to sixteen years, but laws stating ages as young as twelve and as old as twenty-one do exist. Some jurisdictions forbid sexual activity outside of legal marriage completely. The relevant age may also vary by the type of sexual act, the gender of the actors or other restrictions such as abuse of authority. Some jurisdictions may also make allowances for minors engaged in sexual acts with each other rather than a hard and fast single age. Charges resulting from a breach of these laws may range from a relatively low level misdemeanour such as "corruption of a minor" to "statutory rape" (which is considered equivalent to rape, both in severity and sentencing).
There are many grey areas in this field 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.
Social (and the resulting legal) 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, fifteen through to eighteen had become the norm in many countries by the end of the Twentieth Century.
The general moral philosophy behind AoC laws is the assumed need for the protection of minors. It is a common belief in most 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. However, "close in age" exceptions may contradict this point of view (see below under "Law"). There is an ongoing debate in some Western cultures regarding child sexuality as it relates to age of consent. It is these debates that have informed the various laws in different jurisdictions and account for their disparity. Some cultures regard minors engaging in sexual activity as normal whereas other cultures regard it as deviant behavior in need of correction. To add to the confusion, sexual attitudes can evolve in short amounts of time after aeons of stasis, leading to changes in the dominant moral philosophy that usually entice lawmakers to act.
Many legal systems are based on a morality informed by an underlying religious code. For example the Common law systems practised in the United Kingdom and its former colonies were founded upon perceived Christian values. The Laws in many Muslim based countries are based on the Qur'an and the resulting Sharia where any sex outside marriage is usually forbidden. In some legal systems a secular influence has since reformed the Law (for example legalisation of homosexual relations) and in others the perceived moral codes hold. This difference in opinion between different religious groups and secular groups has led to debate and tension in setting a consensus on AoC.
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.
The enforcement practises of AoC laws tend to vary depending on the social sensibilities of the particular culture (see above). 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 gender of each actor can also influence perceptions of an individual's guilt and therefore enforcement.
Not only is enforcement more likely in the case of a larger age gap, but in the US at least, laws are becoming more explicit about prohibiting sex between minors and authority figures, even when the act would otherwise be legal.
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;
These different defences can change dramatically from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, even between neighbouring states of the same union with the same AoC.
The age at which a person can engage in prostitution (if it is at all legal in a jurisdiction) 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.
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 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.
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 territory. Such provisions have been frequently adopted to help reduce the incidence of child sex tourism. See the relevant sections below for discussion of laws in specific jurisdictions. (See also Universal jurisdiction; the effective age of consent may be the highest of those corresponding to the list in Applicable jurisdictions.)
In many jurisdictions there have been differing age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual intercourse, with homosexual acts completely outlawed in some areas. More recently these disparities have been removed in many jurisdictions as a result of the United Nations and gay rights movements' declarations on human rights as well as Federal decisions such as Lawrence v. Texas in the Supreme Court of the United States. In those places that had such disparities the age of consent for heterosexual and female homosexual intercourse was often lower than the age of consent for male homosexual intercourse. There still remain many groups opposed to "homosexual activity", usually based upon a prescribed religious morality (see above).
Specific jurisdictions' laws relating to Age of Consent can be found on the following pages:
__ Africa
__ Asia
__ Australia and Pacific Region
__ Europe
Websites attempting to list the age of consent in many jurisdictions:
Other related pages:
