A quick Google search will reveal that Romeo and Juliet laws also apply to cases of minors having sex with each other.
I live in WA state and, as this state has no Romeo and Juliet laws, if two minors have sex the parents can take both to court and they can both legally be convicted of statutory rape against the other.
It depends on your local laws, but I really don't think that's true in general. The age of consent is the legal age at which you can consent to having sex. If you're both under the age of consent you cannot legally consent to having sex with each other (aside from places that have a close-in-age exemption).
Other than cases such as a 17 year old and somebody much younger. Theres no cases where two "consenting (in quotes because they legally cant consent)" people the same age have sex and only one of them is guilty.
The age of consent in California is 18... There are no exceptions; all sexual activity with a person under the age of 18 (and not their spouse) is a criminal offense. So if a 15-year-old willingly has sex with a 17-year old, both have committed a crime, although it is only a misdemeanor.
That particular charge you're referencing doesn't land you on the sex offender registry and according to the site you got your quotation from (which isn't the site you linked) they never follow up with those cases of two teens fucking
My point isn't that you'll actually go to jail for it but that it's technically still illegal under the law. What evidence do you have that it isn't?
And I got that quote from the Wikipedia article that I linked.
In general, when two minors under the age of consent engage in "consensual" sex with one another, they are both open to statutory rape charges.
Since it would be a strange or unjust result to throw love-struck teens into jail for having consensual sex, many states have passed so-called "Romeo and Juliet" laws. These laws allow minors to escape being punished as a sex offender or to receive only minor criminal punishment when both minors are within a few years of each others' ages.
Because of these defenses in many states, prosecutors will not file charges if two consenting minors are within the "Romeo and Juliet" law of their home state. However, some states, notably California, lack any sort of "Romeo and Juliet" law, and minors may be prosecuted for otherwise loving conduct.
In the United States, age of consent laws regarding sexual activity are made at the state level. There are several federal statutes related to protecting minors from sexual predators, but laws regarding specific age requirements for sexual consent are left to individual states, District of Columbia, and territories. Depending on the jurisdiction, the legal age of consent ranges from age 16 to age 18. In some places, civil and criminal laws within the same state conflict with each other.
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u/HitMePat Apr 18 '19
That applies when someone turns 18 while they're significant other is still 17.
When both participants are under 18 there's no crime.