The law on sex

Some often assume their potential sexual partner is above the age of consent based on the way he or she looks, but looks can be very deceiving. Others are deceived into thinking their sexual partner is of age. The hard truth is that yes, you can still be charged with statutory rape even if you were unaware your sexual partner was under the age of This holds true even if your sexual partner lied to you about their age.

If someone is at least 10 years older than a 15 or year-old minor, he or she is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor under Section (1)(e).

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Every year thousands of adults sexually exploit teenagers — though rarely do these predators receive the notoriety that Roy Moore has achieved.

We can also use that understanding to improve our laws protecting teenagers from sexual abuse. In particular, I think sexual consent laws would benefit from a concept used in contract law involving underage consumers and citizens. Such a system would put an extra onus on adults to make sure that they are not taking advantage of a younger person, strengthening the disincentive to troll malls and sweet-talk people just above the current age of consent.

There is a scientific argument for modifying consent laws. Though laws placing minimum ages on contracts, and sexual consent, were created before we knew that science, lawmakers intuitively if inconsistently recognized that teenagers do not make decisions in the same way adults do. We now know that the teenage brain does not finish maturing until sometime in the mids. The first thing we can say, therefore, is that age-of-consent laws that draw a bright line of sexual maturity at 18 or younger fail to consider the scientific data.

To be sure, levels of maturity vary by individual; setting one age as the advent of maturity is always going to be a gross proxy.