Thus, many jurisdictions prohibit allowing a juvenile to be tried as an adult under this law (most jurisdictions have separate provisions for child molestation or forcible rape which can be applied to juveniles and for which a minor can be tried as an adult).
It is generally intended to punish heinous cases of an adult taking sexual advantage of a minor. Laws vary in their definitions of statutory rape. However, it is clear that most incidents are not prosecuted and do not lead to arrests and convictions. It is estimated that there are more than 7 million incidents of statutory rape every year. teenagers have had sexual intercourse by the age of sixteen. Ĭonsensual teenage sex is common in the United States. Other jurisdictions, such as the US state of Kentucky, eliminate the legal concept of "mental age" and treat sexting with a mentally incapacitated person as a specific crime. As a result, victims can be of any chronological age if their mental age makes them unable to consent to a sexual act. In many jurisdictions, the age of consent is interpreted to mean mental or functional age. Statutory rape laws presume coercion, because a minor or mentally handicapped adult is legally incapable of giving consent to the act. In statutory rape, overt force or threat is usually not present. Sexual relations with a prepubescent child is typically treated as a more serious crime. The terms child sexual abuse or child molestation may also be used, but statutory rape generally refers to sex between an adult and a minor past the age of puberty, and may therefore be distinguished from child sexual abuse. ĭifferent jurisdictions use many different statutory terms for the crime, such as sexual assault (SA), rape of a child (ROAC), corruption of a minor (COAM), unlawful sex with a minor (USWAM), carnal knowledge of a minor (CKOAM), sexual battery or simply carnal knowledge. Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexual contact with minors under the age of consent, it is a generic term, and very few jurisdictions use the actual term statutory rape in the language of statutes. In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent (the age required to legally consent to the behavior).