Immortal wrote:
If she is 13 and having sex with an adult man, then she legally cannot consent. Legally it *is* rape.
In some states, yes, but not in Florida. There it's: 794.05 Unlawful sexual activity with certain minors
The age of consent issue is, legally, a confusing mess. Under Canon Law, the age at which one knew right from wrong was 8, and as a result of that line of reasoning, many countries (and states) used to have ages of consent that were between 8 and 13. That's where the idea of "statutory rape" comes from - when a kid's too young to know right from wrong. But the age of consent started to be moved upwards in a number of places, and very dramatically in most of the US. So while Mexico still has an age of consent of 12, the majority of US states have upped it to 17-18. Florida, like Utah and some others, has one which is gender-based: males may consent at 16, but females have to be 18. (Does anyone really believe that a 16 year old boy is responsible, but a 17 year old girl cannot be?) And people under 18 are allowed to be tried as adults, on the theory that they know right from wrong and are fully responsible for their actions. People who are under 18 can also join the military, and can marry.
In law, there are two sorts of criminal acts, those which are
malum in se (evil in and of themselves), like murder, and those which are
malum prohibitum (evil because the laws proclaim them to be), like prostitution. In the old days, when ages of consent were based on knowing right from wrong, violating the age of consent was
malum in se, but now you can only be sure that it's
malum prohibitum, because nobody pretends that a teenager doesn't know right from wrong, or doesn't know what sex is.