In the News

The ‘Blurred Lines’ of Statutory Rape

Danielle Moodie-Mills writes on the confusion around the age of consent in the United States.

If you Google the term “age of consent,” the age in which a person is considered legally competent to engage in sexual activity, you receive over 200 million results.

If you examine statutory rape and pedophilia claims in Hollywood, there are countless. And a closer look shows that alleged perpetrators who have notable Hollywood names like filmmakers Roman Polanski and Woody Allen are still celebrated instead of used as cautionary tales for predatory behavior.

The map of the United States around sexual consent looks more like the United States of Confusion than anything else.

While many, including myself are outraged by the relationship between 17-year-old mini Kardashian Kylie Jenner and 25-year-old rapper Tyga, is it actually illegal or just frowned upon?

The above excerpt was originally published in NBC News. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Danielle Moodie-Mills

Advisor, LGBT Policy and Racial Justice