The age of consent in Texas is 17 years old; this is the age at which a man or woman may legally consent to heterosexual sex with an adult. Texas has no minimum age of consent for homosexual acts, because the law was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Texas age of consent laws, like those of other states, are designed to prevent young people from being sexually exploited by adults. Texas, like many states, permits teens to engage in sexual relations with their peers. While this activity is far from universal, it is common enough that the courts would be unable to handle all the cases, if it were illegal.

In Texas, young people who are at least 14 years old may legally consent to sex with a partner who is not more than 3 years older. So, a 15-year-old boy can have sex with his brother’s 18-year-old girlfriend, but not with the 42-year-old lady down the street. Although in that example, the brother might object strongly, the conduct would not be illegal.

Under the Texas age of consent laws, it is sexual assault for anyone to penetrate a person who is at least 14 years old but under the age of 17, if the offender is more than 3 years older than the victim is. The law includes an exception for married couples. This crime, commonly called statutory rape, carries a sentence of 2 to 20 years in jail.

The age of consent is different in every country and can vary greatly from state to state within the U.S. Several states including Wisconsin, Florida, Oregon and Virginia set the age of consent at 18. A number of other states set the age of consent at 16, including West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Nevada. Two states set the age of consent at just 14 for females, although it is higher for males. Those states are Iowa and South Carolina.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Age of Consent Laws, Family Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.