Age of Consent in New York

New York has changed the marriage laws recently. Back in 2017, the state bumped the minimum age for marriage up from 14 to 17 years old when there’s parental or judicial consent. Then in July 2021, New York also raised the age again, this time to 18. Now people need to be at least 18 if they want to get a marriage license and officially tie the knot in New York.

Regarding sexual activity, the rules work a little differently. In New York, you need to be at least 17 years old to legally give consent for sex. This rule applies to everyone, no matter what your sex or sexual identity is.

Some states do make exceptions if people are close in age, called a “close-in-age exception.” This type of rule exists because statutory rape laws are mainly put in place to protect minors from being taken advantage of by adults, not to criminalize consensual relationships between teenagers. With these exceptions, the young people who are around the same age don’t get prosecuted for being intimate with each other.

But New York doesn’t set those allowances at all. There’s no “Romeo and Juliet law” here in the state for teenagers. That means if two people, younger than 17, agree to have sex they could be looking at statutory rape charges. Still, if one person is 16 and the other is 17 or 18, New York law doesn’t give you any extra legal protection for their relationship either.

What Are the Penalties if You Have Sex With Someone Underage?

New York still treats statutory rape as a felony, so anyone who’s found guilty will face criminal charges. The actual penalty can depend on the facts of each case.

Rape in the first degree is always handled as a Class B felony in New York. Someone is guilty of this crime if they have sexual intercourse with another person in certain situations. The law considers several circumstances, such as when forcible compulsion is used against the person. It also applies when the other person can’t give consent because they’re physically helpless. The law considers it rape when the other person is younger than eleven years old. The age gaps can get tough very fast. The law also covers the situations where the other person is under thirteen and the accused is eighteen or older.

Rape in the second degree is charged as a Class D felony in New York. This applies to the cases where the accused is eighteen or older and has sex with someone under fifteen or when a person has sex with someone who can’t consent because of a mental disability or mental incapacity.

For rape in the third degree, it’s classified as a Class E felony in the state. The state considers several circumstances in these cases. Someone might face charges when they have sex with a person who can’t consent for reasons beyond being under seventeen. The law also applies when the accused is twenty-one or older and the other person is under seventeen.

After a conviction, there are clear differences in the punishment depending on the felony class. If you’re convicted of a Class E felony, you could spend anywhere from 3 to 4 years in the prison system. For a Class D felony which covers rape in the second degree, the sentence ranges from 7 to specific numbers of years. A conviction for rape in the first degree – a Class B felony – comes with a prison sentence between 10 and 25 years.

Are There Any Defenses to a Violation?

Yes there are a few legal defenses that you can use with the age of consent laws in New York. One defense that often comes up is the claim that the allegations aren’t true at all.

If you do go down this path then you’ll also need to bring in some evidence showing that what’s being said about you just doesn’t add up.

You can also take a more technical strategy and then challenge the charges directly – the clock starts ticking very fast once the charges get filed. It means you need to look for the weak places in what the prosecution is trying to prove, usually by targeting the specific claims that make up the crime itself.

But the prosecutor has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. If you can give the court some good reasons to question their story or show that things don’t quite fit together, the case against you can end up getting written off.

Do I Need a Criminal Lawyer?

When you violate New York’s age of consent laws, the stakes are very real. That’s also the case if you might have a statutory rape charge which can lead to some very serious criminal consequences. If someone has accused you of statutory rape, you should definitely reach out to a New York criminal lawyer once possible.

A good criminal defense attorney can tell you about all of your legal options and help you to put together a strong defense for yourself. They’ll know which legal defenses might apply in your specific situation and they can stand by your side during the court appearances. Don’t try to manage this process on your own. Get some legal help so you can know what steps to take next.