Ephebophilia: Encyclopedia II - Ephebophilia - Legality

Ephebophilia - Legality

While ephebophilia itself is not regulated by any statute, aspects of sexually expressed ephebophilia may or may not be against the law. Depending on the age of consent in a given jurisdiction, an adolescent may be capable of giving legally-recognised consent to sexual activity. If the younger partner is below that age, it is commonly criminalised as statutory rape, regardless of whether the younger partner agrees to - or even initiates - the activity. Reasons given for this include:

• Some adolescents are unable to understand the physical, emotional, and social consequences of sexual activity;
• Adult sexual relations with adolescents can be an abuse of power, using psychological coercion;
• Sexual relations with adolescent girls can lead to pregnancy and parenthood, for which adolescents may not be prepared emotionally or financially.

Relationships between adults and adolescents that do not include sexual activity are generally legal, assuming no other laws regarding child welfare are violated. For example, a romantic relationship with an adolescent below the age of consent is generally legal, especially when the adolescent's age is above the age at which their parents could consent to marriage. In other jurisdictions, this may be illegal.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Legality", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki