I would like to hear from someone with a strong legal background in this aspect of law.
I have heard that the penalties for statute rape change depending on the difference in age of the parties. Two 8th graders (14-ish) might not get charged at all, while an older male would—even if he is still a minor.
Help me out if I am wrong in this.
In any case, I'd stay away (far away) from anyone who says they are under the age of 21.
Originally Posted by ICU 812
As I recall, and I am no lawyer, there is a grey area on the 17 / 18 thing when it comes to this
line of work. There are a myriad of factors involved, that even the DA takes into cases such as these. I am speaking on the topic, by the way, by my firm's CLO who deals with these in spare time as a defense attorney (he inherited a practice from a family member, does it on the side).
His experience in Travis County has been that judges, DAs there take representation into consideration and where the knowledge was on age before asserting the 17 year old thing in cases of this line of work.
On to another poster's point... there is a separation scale as someone brought up. This is called an affirmative "Romeo and Juliet Defense" and allows for up to 3 years (so, a 16 year old and a 19 year old) gap.
Their is no explicit law in Texas that says the AoC is 17 (as many other states do), it simply defines a minor as being UNDER 17 for the purposes of child abuse / sexual exploitation. So that is where the number comes from. Now, as to why the grey area (i.e., the 17/18 thing) in this line of work has never been adequately explained and we need a real legal hound to step in on it.