Age Of Consent Research Articles

Maryland’s Underage Sexting Case: Punishing Revenge Porn Victims?

In 2019, the US State of Maryland’s highest court upheld the conviction of a 16-year-old minor for distributing her own ‘child pornography’ when she privately sent a clip of her performing a (completely legal) sexual act to a social media group of which only she and her two best friends were members. Considering that the child porn statute was never meant to prosecute legal and consensual sexting, this criminalization appears to be contra legem in light of the fact that the Court would not have regarded it as an offence if the girl was two years older (which does not make any difference to the legality of the sexual act since the age of sexual consent in Maryland is 16). The Court’s penalization of this act of sexting seems inappositely puritanical especially when it is noted that the convict was a victim of ‘revenge porn’ since one of the two friends leaked the clip in her school in an apparent act of revenge after their friendship ended. This paper analyses both the majority and dissenting opinions of this 2019 judgment to come to the conclusion that the majority ignores the true purport of the US Supreme Court decisions and wrongly invokes the doctrines for interpreting legislative intent to buttress its stance. As Maryland has criminalized acts of ‘revenge porn’, this article’s focus extends to examining how the Court’s failure of factoring in the effect of Maryland’s ‘revenge porn’ statute in discerning the legislative intent of the ‘child porn’ statute has produced an aberration of a statutory interpretation.

The Slow Death of the Reasonable Steps Requirement for the Mistake of Age Defence

This article examines the demise of the “all reasonable steps” requirement in s. 150.1(4) of the Criminal Code which limits an accused’s ability to assert a mistaken belief in age as a defence to sexual offences against children where he has failed to take such steps. The article demonstrates that the Court of Appeal for Ontario in R v Carbone has rendered this requirement meaningless in Ontario. Even where the Crown has met its burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused did not take “all reasonable steps” to ascertain age, the Crown must still go on and prove mens rea as to the fact that the complainant was under the age of consent. The article argues that, where there is no suggestion that a legislative provision is unconstitutional, courts should not use statutory interpretation to effectively read a legislative provision out of existence, especially where it was intended to protect children from sexual contact with adults.

Kate Gleeson and Catharine Lumby (Eds.): The Age of Consent: Young People, Sexual Abuse and Agency : Crawley, Western Australia: UWA Publishing, 2019, 163 pp, 9781760800314.

Kate Gleeson and Catharine Lumby (Eds.): The Age of Consent: Young People, Sexual Abuse and Agency : Crawley, Western Australia: UWA Publishing, 2019, 163 pp, 9781760800314.

Adolescent sexual and reproductive health and universal health coverage: a comparative policy and legal analysis of Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) forces governments to consider not only how services will be provided – but which services – and to whom, when, where, how and at what cost. This paper considers the implications for achieving UHC through the lens of abortion-related care for adolescents. Our comparative study design includes three countries purposively selected to represent varying levels of restriction on access to abortion: Ethiopia (abortion is legal and services implemented); Zambia (legal, complex services with numerous barriers to implementations and provision of information); Malawi (legally highly restricted). Our policy and legal analyses are supplemented by comparative vignettes based on interviews (n = 330) in 2018/2019 with adolescents aged 10–19 who have sought abortion-related care in each country. We focus on an under-considered but critical legal framing for adolescents – the age of consent. We compare legal and political commitments to advancing adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights, including abortion-related care. Ethiopia appears to approach UHC for safe abortion care, and the legal provision for under 18-year-olds appears to be critical. In Malawi, the most restrictive legal environment for abortion, little progress appears to have been made towards UHC for adolescents. In Zambia, despite longstanding legal provision for safe abortion on a wide range of grounds, the limited services combined with low levels of knowledge of the law mean that the combined rights and technical agendas of UHC have not yet been realised. Our comparative analyses showing how policies and laws are framed have critical implications for equity and justice.

Loss to follow-up among female sex workers in Zambia: findings from a five-year HIV-incidence cohort

HIV-incidence studies are used to identify at-risk populations for HIV-prevention trials and interventions, but loss to follow-up (LTFU) can bias results if participants who remain differ from those who drop out. We investigated the incidence of and factors associated with LTFU among Zambian female sex workers (FSWs) in an HIV-incidence cohort from 2012 to 2017. Enrolled participants returned at month one, month three and quarterly thereafter. FSWs were considered LTFU if they missed six consecutive months, or if their last visit was six months before the study end date. Of 420 FSWs, 139 (33%) were LTFU at a rate of 15.7 per 100 person years. In multivariable analysis, LTFU was greater for FSWs who never used alcohol, began sex work above the age of consent, and had a lower volume of new clients. Our study appeared to retain FSWs in most need of HIV-prevention services offered at follow-up.

Delivering PrEP to adults with “low” or “no” HIV risk and youth: experiences and perspectives of PrEP providers

Health care providers have an important role to play in expanding PrEP uptake to populations disproportionately burdened by HIV. In this study, in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 PrEP providers in Los Angeles, California to explore their experiences and perspectives prescribing PrEP. Overall, the findings indicate that providers generally adhered to US CDC clinical guidelines in determining PrEP eligibility. However, they also identified special considerations with respect to adults with “low” or “no” HIV risk. Three themes were developed from the data related to the delivery of PrEP to such individuals: 1) patients may not disclose sexual behaviours; 2) patient autonomy and agency; and 3) the importance of PrEP in gay male monogamous relationships. Two additional themes were identified related to prescribing PrEP to young people under the age of consent: 4) the need for more PrEP and sexual health education with youth and 5) challenges in providing PrEP to youth without parental consent. Findings highlight the importance of providing PrEP to patients who could potentially benefit from adoption, whether or not they present with clear behavioural indicators for PrEP. Providers should also consider the potential barriers to delivering PrEP to youth to ensure successful adoption among members of this population.

Dilemmas of school-based relationships and sexuality education for and about consent

ABSTRACT In 2018, reflecting in this journal on the arrival of the ‘age of consent’ into sexuality education, Jen Gilbert questioned what would happen to a concept drawn in part from legal contexts, but partly also driven by the passion of feminist activists, when it met the demands and logics – the learning outcomes and lesson plans – of the classroom. This article offers one response, drawing on qualitative data from two whole-school sexual health programmes, Positive Choices and Project Respect, piloted in secondary schools in England between 2017 and 2019. It describes how each addressed the issue of consent and focuses on specific ‘moments’ that illuminate some of the challenges of doing so for both staff and students. Our analyses aim to contribute to the practice of relationships and sexuality education in schools by helping educators to anticipate, understand and therefore better address the dilemmas that teaching for and about consent might encounter. We argue that these dilemmas relate both to broader (and gendered) ideas of consent and entitlement, and to issues specific to schools. However, we also argue that a more theorised account of the school enables us to identify the minor achievements that are nonetheless possible.

Hepatitis C Virus Treatment in Children: A Challenge for Hepatitis C Virus Elimination.

Hepatitis C is a global public health threat. The introduction of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) brings the prospect of curing the 71 million people living with the disease, dramatically changing the landscape of hepatitis C. The World Health Organization developed a roadmap for the elimination and cure of hepatitis C by 2030 with a clear goal with measurable targets. However, there is a lack of a well-defined strategy to tackle the hepatitis C virus (HCV) problem in children and adolescents vis-à-vis the adult population. Hepatitis C in children and adolescents can be addressed as part of a national policy for elimination in the whole population, namely macroelimination, or could be fragmented into a microelimination approach targeting the high-risk population groups. Children born to HCV-infected mothers, adolescents who are injecting drugs, migrants, and those suffering from inherited blood diseases are important target populations. After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the use of DAAs in children aged 3 years and above, evidence from clinical trials and real-world experience was accumulated using brand and generic medicines, with sustained virological response rates exceeding 95%. The evidence created should guide policies on the management of hepatitis C in children and adolescents. There are many challenges in managing HCV in this left-behind marginalized population. The lack of awareness and epidemiological data, consent age, prohibitive prices of medicines, and absence of policies on access to diagnostics, treatment, and linkage to care are among the many barriers to service delivery that should be addressed to achieve the elimination goal by 2030.

Video vs. in-person genetic counseling for men considering germline prostate cancer testing: A patient-choice study.

1577 Background: Germline testing (GT) for prostate cancer (PCA) is rapidly increasing with higher demand for genetic counseling (GC). Alternate GC strategies need to be studied to address pretest informed consent. Here we conducted a patient-choice study of pretest video-based genetic education (VBGE) or in-person GC (IPGC) and assessed men’s preference and patient-reported outcomes from the first cohort of the Evaluation and Management for Prostate Oncology, Wellness, and Risk (EMPOWER) study. Methods: Eligibility for EMPOWER includes any male with PCA or at-risk for PCA based on family history or African American race. Men may choose pretest IPGC or VBGE. All receive results by a genetic professional. Demographics and PCA features were collected at baseline. The following outcomes and scales were assessed: baseline anxiety (GAD-7 scale), change in cancer genetics knowledge from baseline (Giri 2019), decisional conflict for GT (O’Connor 1993), and satisfaction (DeMarco 2004). Understanding of personal GT results was assessed after disclosure (Giri 2019). Descriptive statistics summarized results with counts and percentages for categorical variables and mean and standard deviation for continuous variables. Data were compared with Fisher’s exact, Chi-squared, or Wilcoxon two-sample tests, as appropriate. Mean change in cancer genetics knowledge was compared with t-tests. Significance level was set a priori at 0.05. All analyses were performed with SAS 9.4 (Cary, NC). Results: At the time of this analysis, 94 men were enrolled. Characteristics of the cohort were: White (88.3%), bachelor’s degree (67%), PCA diagnosis (93%), mean age of consent 59 years (IPGC) and 61 years (VBGE), Gleason > = 8 (32%), and > = T3 (31%). The majority preferred VBGE (77%) vs. IPGC (23%). Men who opted for IPGC had lower educational levels ( < = high school/GED) (18% IPGC vs 7% VBGE) and reported higher baseline anxiety (45% IPGC vs. 24% VBGE). Cancer genetics knowledge improved significantly with IPGC vs. VBGE (+2.5 vs +0.8; p < 0.01). No differences were observed in decisional conflict, satisfaction, or understanding of personal GT results between IPGC vs. VBGE. Both groups had high rates of GT uptake (IPGC 91%, VBGE 93%). Pathogenic mutations were identified in 15% in IPGC group and 10.4% in VBGE group. Conclusions: A substantial proportion of men opted for VBGE, and results suggest that VBGE is comparable to IPGC for men considering PCA GT. IPGC may be more suitable for men with lower knowledge of cancer genetics and greater levels or anxiety. Further study is warranted.

The Ethiopian Statutory Rape Law in Light of Human Rights Approach

Statutory rape refers to sexual relations involving someone below the "age of consent." People below the age of consent cannot legally consent to having sex. This means that sex with them, by definition, violates the law. Statutory rape laws vary by state, with states setting the age of consent differently, as well as using different names to refer to this crime. Ethiopian statutory rape provided under laws addressing injury to sexual liberty and chastity. This article will examine the Ethiopian statutory rape law in light of human right approach. During the investigation of the Federal Supreme Court Cassation Division Decision, the constitution of Ethiopian and international human right instruments shows that this statutory provision violate the victims and the defendants human right. Keywords: human right , rape , statutory, sexuality. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/97-01 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

How Should Decision-Sharing Roles Be Considered in Adolescent Gender Surgeries?

The nascent field of gender-affirming surgery (GAS) for binary and nonbinary transgender adolescents is growing rapidly, and the optimal use of shared decision making (SDM)-including who should be involved, to what extent, and for which parts of the decision-is still evolving. Participants include the adolescent (whose goals might center on aesthetics and functionality), the surgeon (who might focus more on minimizing complications), the referring clinician (whose participation is mandated by present standards of care), and the caregiver (whose participation is required for patients below the age of consent). This article argues that effective, ethical SDM in adolescent GAS care requires a different conceptualization of roles than might be expected in other situations and should be a longitudinal experience rather than a singular event.

Re-Defining The Role Of Indian Legislature In Regulating Consensual Sex Between Minors

The role of legislator is not simply confined to making laws, but they also play a significant role in development of society as a whole as they escalate or attenuate this process of development by the quality of laws they make. The age of consent laws made by the legislator are one set of laws that are working in contradiction of the aims and objectives for which they were enacted and are rather being criticized. The term „age of consent‟ is itself controversial and it has been suggested what is created is an „age of liability‟ for the offender rather than an age of consent.1It has been argued that „age of consent‟ is an establishment of age at which the law of a country decides that a child is allowed to have sexual intercourse and it has very less to do with consent. Much of the behaviour caught within the web of Rape of a child between 16-18 years of age involves the cases of consensual sexual intercourse, thus involving the adolescent youth of the country who are being prosecuted. This necessitates the need to stop this never-ending web of accusations against the boys who are being prosecuted for having sexual intercourse notwithstanding the involvement and consent of the girl to the fullest. The paper is shared out in four sections. In the first section, the author delves into the theme of statutory rape law and POCSO Act to critically analyse its utility in protecting children from consensual sexual acts. In the second section, the author attempts to examine the legislative intent behind setting such a higher age of consent from a historical perspective and brings to the surface a critique of legislative intent and acts. In the third section, based on a critique of traditional ideology and dearth in approbation of principles of criminalization, the author explains the need of decriminalizing consensual sexual acts among adolescents (between 16 to 18 years of age). In fourth section, the author attempts to conclude by quoting suggestions to frame the best practice paradigm to implementing Statutory Rape law in Indian Legal System.

Vernacularizing Justice: Age of Consent and a Legal History of the British Empire

This is a commentary on five papers included in a forum on the age of consent on the British Empire

Cultures of Sex, Laws of Difference: Age of Consent Law and the Forging of a Fraternal Contract on the Margins of the Nineteenth-Century British Empire

In the British colony of Natal, laws governing sex for settlers were concerned with reproduction and sexual respectability, which were the grounds for imagining difference amongst imperial populations only recently assembled under colonial jurisdiction. Age of consent laws arose out of these contingencies rather than out of any concern with a liberal politics of social reform. Consequently, colonial age of consent laws governing white settlers bore only superficial resemblance to metropolitan legislative reforms such as age of consent laws. Instead, the Natal state's practices of law-making recognized three discrete and divergent moral economies of sex in the colonial laws governing white settler citizens, Native law which governed the lives of Africans and the consolidated body of laws governing Indian immigrants. In this young colony, not only did ‘age of consent’ laws have to be newly made, but they were conceived separately and contained by ‘colonial law’, ‘Native custom’ and ‘Indian custom’. The sexuality of young white woman was coded in colonial rape laws and used to draw lines of civilizational difference between settler citizens and their Others. For these others, relating sex to exceptional marriage customs excluded from legal codes of civilized common practice was how the state worked to assert difference.

Conceptualizing Consent: How Prosecutors Identify Sexual Victimization in Statutory Rape Cases

ABSTRACTIn the wake of rape law reforms, lack of sexual consent emerged as a key element that defined sexual contact as criminal. Its presence modified the requirement of force or threat of violence, and it gained traction in campaigns to eradicate sexual assault. Little is known, however, about how prosecutors assess consent. In this article, I use the case of statutory rape to better understand the legal construction of sexual consent. By focusing on an age-based class of individuals who are sexually mature but still under the age of consent, I show how legal actors identify sexual victimization among youth. Drawing on interviews with forty-three prosecutors, I analyze prosecutorial decision making during the investigation, charging, and trial phases. I find that sexual consent is not simply a dichotomous legal category but rather a sociological process. Prosecutors define sexual victimization based on informal ideas about normative adolescent sexuality, reproducing social hierarchies based on age, gender, and sexual identity.

A Historical Analysis of Rape Laws in India

Sexual assault and its various forms have been recognized by almost all the society and have been recorded by history. It is not a crime against women but it is the crime against the whole society; it is against the basic human rights of all the individuals. Rape laws have been recognized by all the countries; in India 'rape laws' began with the enactment of the Indian Penal Code 1860. After 1860 there have been various amendments, and the main issue of focus remained on the definition of The inclusion of 'consent' and 'age of consent' in rape became a very big matter of debate and thus wth proper judgments and amendments the consent part in rape has been made clear. A big matter of debate from the 1990s until today in the ambit of rape laws is the inclusion of marital rape. Facing public protests and political pressure after the attack, the government reformed some laws on sexual violence and harsher punishments but still sexual attacks have caused outrage. This paper discusses various amendments that have been made till today regarding rape laws in India and reason and the need for those changes and the loopholes that still exist in rape laws in today's Indian legal system.

Critical Analysis of the Protection of Children From the Sexual Offences Act, 2012 Regarding the Age of Consent for Sexual Relations

Critical Analysis of the Protection of Children From the Sexual Offences Act, 2012 Regarding the Age of Consent for Sexual Relations

Similar Facts and Consent in Sexual Assault Cases: Filling in the Gap Left by the High Court in Phillips

A number of jurisdictions in Australia have amended their rules governing joint trials in order to encourage trial judges to join sexual assault counts in the one trial where there are multiple complainants. There are good public interest reasons for joint trials, particularly given the frequency of the serial nature of sex offending. Crime statistics show that the age group most vulnerable to sexual assault is children under the age of consent which is the group least able to protect themselves and least likely to report the abuse. While trial judges must consider the accused's right to a fair trial when considering whether to order joint or separate trials, legislation governing this procedural issue shows that the decision is not black or white. In other words, it is possible to hold a joint trial that does not 'prejudice or embarrass' an accused's defence.

Age at first intercourse, number of partners and sexually transmitted infection prevalence among Danish, Norwegian and Swedish women: estimates and trends from nationally representative cross-sectional surveys of more than 100000 women.

Sexual behavior at the population level impacts on public health. Recent representative sexual behavior data are lacking. Cross-sectional surveys in 2005 and 2012 on women age 18-45years randomly selected from the general population in Denmark (n=40804), Norway (n=30331) and Sweden (n=32114). Median (interquartile range) age at first intercourse was 16 (15-18)years in Denmark, 17 (16-18)years in Norway, and 17 (15-18)years in Sweden. Women in the most recent birth cohort had sexual debut at the lowest age, and were most likely to have sexual debut before the legal age of consent. Proportions with debut age ≤14 years among women born 1989-1994 vs 1971-1976, odds ratio (95% confidence interval) were: 18.4% vs 10.9%, 1.95 (1.74-2.18) in Denmark, 12.9% vs 6.3%, 2.38 (2.01-2.82) in Norway, 17.8% vs 11.4%, 1.75 (1.55-1.98) in Sweden. Median (interquartile range) number of lifetime sexual partners was 6 (3-10) in Denmark, 5 (2-10) in Norway, and 6 (3-11) in Sweden. The proportion of women reporting >10 sexual partners was also highest in the most recent survey. The percentage with odds ratio (95% confidence interval) in 2012 vs 2005 surveys were: 24.9% vs 22.8%, 1.13 (1.07-1.18) for Denmark; 23.8% vs 19.8%, 1.27 (1.19-1.34) for Norway; and 28.3% vs 23.8%, 1.31 (1.24-1.38) for Sweden. Similarly, the proportion of women reporting ever having had a sexually transmitted infection among women age <30 years were: 29.4% vs 26.4%, 1.21 (1.13-1.31) in Denmark, 28.9% vs 25.0%, 1.20 (1.10-1.31) in Norway, and 29.4% vs 22.2%, 1.45 (1.33-1.58) in Sweden. Scandinavian women reported lower age at first intercourse in younger birth cohorts. Moreover, they reported more lifetime sexual partners and a higher prevalence of ever having a sexually transmitted infection in 2012 than in 2005. Our findings may inform the interpretation of trends in outcomes associated with sexual health, and public health policies.

Right to Sexual Autonomy of Children—Implications of the UNCRC upon the Indian Law on the Age of Consent

This article discusses the implications of sexual autonomy of children under international child rights regime upon Indian law. Indian general criminal law defining the offence of rape and a special statute defining different types of child sexual assault led to the inference that the current age of consent is 18 years. Despite statutory prohibition of child marriages in India, the general criminal law contains an explanatory provision exempting the rape of a married woman above the age of 15. The Supreme Court of India struck this down as discriminatory and inconsistent with existing provisions of law, increasing the age of consent of a married woman to 18. It is necessary for Indian law to clearly define the age of consent of children, and grant rights of sexual autonomy to children who are capable of making their own decisions, without compromising on penalising sexual offenders of children.