Age of consent laws in VA

[Anonymous]

Do 18 year olds get prosecuted for having sexual with their 17 year old partner?

My daughter is in a serious relationship. They are 10 months apart. It looks like they can legally have a physical relationship now, but not after he turns 18. This seems crazy to me. I will talk to her about the legalities of everything, but it seems wrong that the government can tell them to stop having sexual contact for 10 months.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is kind of flukey but once one person 'ages' out' and becomes 18 in Virginia the 'Romeo and Juliet' law no longer applies and you are back to standard Statutory Rape. Whether or not they prosecute is a different story though.

https://www.sshw.com/blog/2018/07/are-there-romeo-and-juliet-laws-in-virginia.shtml

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is kind of flukey but once one person 'ages' out' and becomes 18 in Virginia the 'Romeo and Juliet' law no longer applies and you are back to standard Statutory Rape. Whether or not they prosecute is a different story though.

https://www.sshw.com/blog/2018/07/are-there-romeo-and-juliet-laws-in-virginia.shtml

This is sort of true and sort of not. There is not one "statutory rape" statute in Virginia. The Contributing statute makes it a class 1 misdemeanor for a person 18 or over to have sex with a person 15-17. The laws making it illegal to have sex with 13 and 14 year olds have a provision making it a much less serious crime if the older person is less than a certain number of years older. Because neither partner under 18 can violate the Contributing statute, it is not a crime for 15-17 year olds to have sex with each other. I have never seen an 18 year old prosecuted for sex with a 17 year old partner if it is not in public, if the parents are not complaining, if there's no developmental disorder with the younger partner, etc. It used to be that oral sex was a felony and vaginal a misdemeanor with those ages, but I think that got fixed recently.

You can tell them it's against the law, but realistically it will not be prosecuted. But NO SEXTING AND NO PICTURES OF UNDERAGE PEOPLE (themselves or others). Child porn charges should be your bigger concern really.

[Anonymous]

OP, don't talk to her about this

[Anonymous]

This country is totally insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, don't talk to her about this

Why wouldn’t you talk to your child about this? Her and I discussed it this week.

We have already discussed the legal risk of pictures, and what comes along with being on a sex-offender registry.