A person who has sexual contact with a person who is not the spouse of the aggressor – (..) 2 ° if the other person is under thirteen years of age; In the Bahamas, the age of consent for opposite-sex activities is 16 and the age of consent for same-sex activities is 18. Homosexuality was legalized in 1991, but “public homosexuality” is a crime punishable by 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole. [7] [needs to be updated] Teens aged 13, 14 and 15 may not be able to legally engage in sexual activity with partners under the age of 4. These partners cannot be prosecuted under legal rape laws, but can be held responsible for other crimes, even if the sexual activity is consensual. [194] The crime of “child abuse” makes it illegal for anyone “to perform an immoral or indecent act on or in the presence of or with a child under the age of 16 with the intention of arousing or satisfying the sexual desires of the child or person,” as well as to transmit electronically any representation of such an act. [147] It provides for a minimum sentence of 5 years and a maximum of 20 years` imprisonment for a first-time offender, as well as mandatory counselling and sexual criminal sanctions. For repeat offenders, the minimum of 10 years and the maximum is a life sentence. This crime has the same age exception as the legal rape mentioned above if the victim is 14 or 15 years old and the actor is 18 years old or younger and under 4 years old. Details: The minimum age is 16 years for people aged 20 and over. Under 20 years of age, the younger person must not be under 14 years of age. However, there is a law on “sexual indecency with a child” that prohibits anyone over the age of 18 from requesting sexual activity from anyone under the age of 15 (or presumably under the age of 15). This means that while the sexual activity between a 14-year-old and an 18- or 19-year-old may be legal on its own, the solicitation could still be charged with a Class D crime.
In Mexico, criminal legislation is shared between the federal and state governments. Federal law sets the age of 12 as the minimum age for consent, while the age at which there are no restrictions on consensual sexual activity is 18 (sexual relations with a person between the ages of 12 and 18 are not illegal per se, but can still be prosecuted in certain circumstances). Local state laws may prevail over federal law. In practice, the decision whether or not to prosecute is left to the State authorities, regardless of the age of the youngest person. At the state level, the minimum age of consent ranges from 12 (and puberty in some states) to 15, while the age at which there are no restrictions on consensual sexual activity ranges from 16 to 18 (most often 18). Criminal law (including the definition of the age of consent) falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government, so the age of consent is consistent across Canada. Section 151 of the Canadian Criminal Code makes it an offence to touch a person under the age of 16 for sexual purposes. Section 153 then prohibits a person under the age of 18 from being sexually touched by a person in three circumstances: if the person is in a “position of trust or authority” with the young person, if the young person is in a “relationship of dependency” with the young person, or if the relationship is “exploitative”. The term “trust or authority” is not defined in the Code, but the courts have held that parents, teachers and health professionals have a position of trust or authority over the adolescents they care for or teach. Section 153( 1.2) of the Code provides that a judge may infer whether or not a relationship is “exploitative” by taking into account its nature and circumstances, including the young person`s aging, the age difference between the partners, the development of the relationship, and the degree of control or influence that the older partner exerts over the youth. Under article 1310, there is an affirmative defence for the crimes described in articles 1306 to 1309 for consensual activities between legal spouses and for cases where the defendant reasonably believed that a minor was 13 years of age or older. (a) a person is guilty of third-degree criminal sexual conduct if he or she engages in sexual penetration with another person and there is one of the following circumstances: (1) the actor is sexually assaulting a victim under the age of eleven; A common misconception of legal rape is that state codes define a single age at which a person can legally consent to sexual relations.
Only 12 states have a uniform age of consent, below which a person can in no way consent to sexual intercourse and beyond which it is legal to have sex with another person beyond the age of consent. For example, in Massachusetts, the age of consent is 16. The laws are designed to prosecute people who are much older than the victims and not teenagers who are close in age; As a result, prosecutors have rarely prosecuted teens in their relationships with other teens, although the wording of the laws has made some close relationships with teens illegal. After the 1995 Landry and Forrest study concluded that men aged 20 and older produced half of teenage pregnancies of girls aged 15 to 17, states began to stricterly enforce age of consent laws to combat teenage pregnancies and prevent adults from taking advantage of minors. [110] Minimum age. In 27 states that do not have a uniform age of consent, laws set the age at which a person cannot legally have sex, regardless of the age of the accused (see second column of Table 1). The minimum age required in these states ranges from 10 to 16 years. The legality of sexual intercourse with a person who has exceeded the minimum age and the age of consent depends on the age difference between the two parties and/or the age of the defendant. It turned out that Georgia`s age of consent remained at 10 years until 1918, then increased to 14 years. [151] [152] [153] After the 1918 legislative amendments, Georgia still had the lowest age of consent in the country, as the other 47 states raised their age of consent to 16 or 18. [104] The age of consent in Georgia remained at 14 until 1995, when a bill proposed by Steve Langford was passed to make him 16. [107] Sections 1303 and 1304 of the Commonwealth Code also criminalize sexual activity with persons aged 18 or 19 if they “have fallen into the custody of the Department of Public Health and Environmental Services under the civil or criminal laws of the Commonwealth and the perpetrator is the legal guardian of the person.” .