At What Age?

A minor cannot legally make decisions for themselves. They cannot vote, enlist in the armed services, smoke, or consent to sex. The ages for these privileges are generally 18 but vary by state. The age of majority for various activities is a point of contention for teenagers. I heard many arguments in high school of why drinking & smoking should be the same as that of the draft. My male friends often cheered statements such as “old enough to shoot the enemy, old enough to drink a beer.”

At what age can a person think for themselves? A developmentally disabled person can vote at 18 but a 16 year old with a high IQ cannot. Intelligence is not the deciding factor. A 16 year old cannot consent to sex based on their own decision, but can marry with parental permission. Their own emotional development or a personal sense of responsibility is not the deciding factor. Most states consider sex with a minor legal if it is within the bonds of marriage; effectively giving parents the right to say when their offspring is ready to have sex. Parents cannot override the age of consent for voting or drinking, but they can provide legal sex through marriage. This impression of breeding chattel dates back to medieval times when parents gave away young virgin brides to bring together family real estate holdings or cement an economic/trade relationship with another family.

Parents fear their loss of control over their offspring’s sexuality. Statutory rape laws are a flawed method of exerting societal control over a minor’s sexuality. The book Harmful to Minors: the Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by Judith Levine discusses the repression of sex education in schools over the past twenty years. In a book review titled “Pelvic Issues” Catherine Madsen writes that Levine thinks “that statutory rape laws are a bad way to deal with relations that are consensual from the younger person’s point of view….young people ought to be listened to and given the means to think about their developing sexual experience.” Madsen also stats that Levine “objects to the basing of public policy on oversimplification and hysterical rage – faults to which every parent confronting the sexuality of his or her child is susceptive, and which should not be written uncritically into law.”

In the article Issues in Statutory Rape Law Enforcement: the Views of District Attorneys in Kansas by H. Miller, C. Miller, L. Kenny & J. Clark the authors state “The U.S. Congress made the prevention of teenage pregnancies a major objective of the 1996 federal welfare reform law, which recommends that ‘the states and local jurisdictions should aggressively enforce statutory rape laws’ as one way to achieve this end….Can aggressive enforcement of statutory rape laws reduce adolescent pregnancy rates? While federal reform policy argues that it can, many recent studies and commentaries either suggest that it cannot or show no consensus on this topic. According to the article, in 1996 there were 4,772 births to women in Kansas who were aged ten to nineteen. One hundred and five district attorneys were surveyed regarding statutory rape laws for the article. “Only 24% of the respondents believed enforcement would reduce adolescent pregnancy. Fifty-seven percent supported the current legal age of consent in Kansas (16 years). Fifty-three percent thought the law should not specify age differences between the partners. Most (77%) believed the law should protect sexually active minors, and that paternity acknowledgements should be admissible evidence in prosecutions (78%).”

Age should not be a magic number that bestows the ability to control our own bodies. Statutory rape laws are not the cure for teen pregnancy or a control for teenage sexuality. The law needs to be changed to reflect the difference between a teen growing into their own sexuality and a non-consensual act of rape or abuse. The current restrictions on people labeled as sex offenders only underscores the importance of society thinking carefully before branding a teenager with a scarlet letter.