Age of Consent

Age of consent commonly refers to the minimum age at which a governing body permits persons to engage in sexual conduct. However, the question “What is the age of consent in location x?” elides an often varied array of statutes regulating the sexual conduct of young people. In the very same jurisdiction there are often multiple “ages of consent,” depending on the type of sexual contact, the genital sex of the participants, and/or the marital status of the participants. For example, in India, although the age of consent is 18 (if unmarried), there is no “age of consent” for same-sex sex, since same-sex sex, across all ages, was recriminalized in 2013. And while most states in the United States set the age of consent at ...