|
|
|
[ Main Page of Report | Contents of Report ]
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is concerned about the health of adolescents, including unwanted sexual contact at a young age. For example, research finds that:
These findings raised concerns among policy makers, health care providers, and advocates alike and prompted a study of alternatives for reducing coercive sexual activity. Of paramount concern is protecting young people from harm and providing vulnerable young people with the health care and other supports that they need while assisting service providers in their obligation to comply with state reporting requirements. It is important to understand how HHS grantees can meet those responsibilities within the context of their organizational missions, which may involve the provision of confidential services.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within HHS, and its federal partner agencies, are focusing on three federally funded programs that have contact with adolescents: Title X family planning clinics, Health Resources and Services Administration-supported health centers, and child protective services. ASPE contracted with The Lewin Group, a health and human services consulting firm, to conduct a multi-phase, descriptive study to collect information about state laws, federal guidance to programs, and grantees’ and local offices’ practices. Lewin is assisted in the study by an advisory group composed of representatives from each of the three HHS agencies on which the study is focused: The Office of Population Affairs, the Children’s Bureau, and the Health Resources and Services Administration.
One task of this project was a compilation of state laws and reporting requirements. As this document indicates, there is wide variation among laws and reporting requirements in different states. This report includes the following two sections:
This report is designed to provide information useful to state and federal policymakers who are interested in how state statutes address statutory rape. It is also intended to serve as a resource for HHS grantees to better understand their legal obligations with respect to statutory rape.
[ Go to Contents ]
Unlike most rape laws, in which force is a key element of the offense, statutory rape laws assume that all sexual activities with individuals below a certain age are coercive, even if both parties believe their participation is voluntary. Generally, statutory rape laws define the age below which an individual is legally incapable of consenting to sexual activity. For example, the Supreme Court of Idaho defined the ability to give legal consent to include: (1) the ability to recognize the potential consequences of sexual intercourse and, given this understanding, (2) the ability to make a knowing choice.[4]
The History of Statutory Rape Laws
As Michelle Oberman discusses in Regulating Consensual Sex with Minors: Defining a Role for Statutory Rape, the theoretical underpinnings of statutory rape laws have changed dramatically since their inception.[5] The modern rationale for these laws is grounded in the desire to protect minors from sexual exploitation. However, when these laws originated in 13th century, the primary intent was to protect the chastity of young women.
Oberman notes that the emergence of feminism heavily influenced changes to statutory rape laws. The laws went largely unchanged until the end of the 19th century, when feminists sought to increase the age of consent to protect young women from potentially coercive relationships. As a result of these efforts, the average age of consent was raised from 12 to 18 years old.
In the 1970’s, second wave feminists began to challenge the underlying principles of statutory rape laws. Although they recognized the importance of protecting vulnerable minors from coercive and exploitative sexual relationships, they wanted to ensure that the laws did not unduly restrict the sexual autonomy of young women. In addition, there was a strong push to make the laws gender-neutral.
Statutory rape laws continue to evolve in the wake of the reforms of the past 30 years. For example, the issue surfaced during debates about welfare reform in the mid 1990’s when some legislators suggested that stricter enforcement of statutory rape laws could help to reduce teen pregnancy rates.
The term “statutory rape” appears throughout this paper; however few states have laws which specifically use this term. More frequently, a state’s statute will include a number of offenses that have age-specific provisions addressing voluntary sexual acts and the age at which an individual can legally consent to such acts. For the purposes of this overview, “statutory rape” refers to sexual acts that would be legal if not for the age of at least one of the parties. The individual state summaries, in Section III of the report, reference the specific offenses that constitute statutory rape.
In the interest of clarity, the report also uses standard labels for the participants in the offenses discussed. “Defendant” refers to the alleged perpetrator or individual who would be subject to prosecution under the statute in question. “Victim” identifies the individual on whom the act was allegedly perpetrated. Although these terms may be overly simplistic, they communicate the legal role each party plays with respect to the laws discussed in the report.[6]
This report focuses on laws that criminalize voluntary sexual acts involving a minor that would be legal if not for the age of one or more of the participants. The report does not include laws where the legality of the sexual acts is dependent on the relationship of the participants (e.g., incest, sex between teachers and students or doctors and patients). In addition, the summaries do not include laws that criminalize specific sexual behavior (e.g., sodomy, bestiality) or deal primarily with prostitution, sexual exploitation,[7] or enticement.
The laws referenced in this report generally come from two areas of states’ statutes.[8]
The majority of the reporting requirements deal primarily with child abuse. Although these laws also address neglect, child maltreatment, and non-sexual abuse, this report focuses only on those sections of the laws addressing sexual abuse. In addition, the report indicates where the applicability of states’ reporting requirements is limited based on the relationship between the victim and defendant (e.g., cases where the defendant is a person responsible for the care of the victim).
Statutes from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia were the primary sources of information for this report. Each state’s statutes were accessed via the Internet—usually through the state legislature’s Website. As of this writing, all of the statutes were current through at least 2003. This report is not intended to be a legal document. It relies on the most recent information available; however many of the state statutes referenced were unannotated. That said, every effort was made to search additional resources to learn of recent changes in the law or applicable case law and attorneys’ general opinions affecting the statutes.
In addition to the actual state statutes, a number of documents and on-line resources provided valuable supplementary information. These include:
[ Go to Contents ]
[2] The Alan Guttmacher Institute (1994). Sex and America’s Teenagers. New York.
Top of Page | Contents
Main Page of Report |
Contents of Report
Home Pages:
Human Services Policy
(HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
(ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS)