Consensual sex between teens

The age of consent is the age at which a person may legally consent to sexual activity. Many people look up the age of consent for a particular state forgetting that age of consent rules also apply at the federal level. Surprisingly, certain affirmative defenses in Texas where age of consent in an issue, like the Romeo-Juliet statutes or provisions, differ based on the nature of the alleged offense. Any sex allegation involving a child can bring your life to a screeching halt.

The Antioch man, a college student who asked not to be identified to protect his privacy, was charged in August with three counts of unlawful sex with a minor — colloquially known as statutory rape — and three counts of oral copulation on a person under age He said the case put him in jail for 12 days, cost him a job at FedEx and forced him to take a semester off school. Around Antioch, he said, he was treated as if he were already a convicted sex offender. That year-old had just been accepted into the Army before the case was filed this year, and the charges derailed his military plan, which included studying at West Point, his attorney said. Especially damning to the thenyear-old: Detectives found his cellphone contained a video of the girl performing oral sex. The girl told the officer she thought the sex was legal and that it was only a crime if her partner was at least five years older. Deputy district attorney Adam Wilks said the girl cooperated with the prosecution, and asked for a restraining order against the defendant after they broke up around the time of his arrest.

When Shakespeare brought Romeo and Juliet to life, he was intentional in choosing two young characters as his protagonists. Then as now, two teenagers having consensual sex is perfectly understandable. On the other hand, an adult molesting a child is reprehensible.

We conclude that mandatory reporters are not obligated to report every instance of sexual conduct involving minors when the age-gap defense applies. Sexual conduct between participants less than three years apart by age does not need to be reported if the lack of consent is due to the age of the minors, and no other factors make the conduct a crime or otherwise qualify as "abuse. However, each instance of sexual conduct involving a minor must be considered by the potential reporter.