Age of consent
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The age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts.
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- Until very recently, no California court or commentator had suggested that the purpose of California's statutory rape law was to protect young women from the risk of pregnancy. Indeed, the...the law was initially enacted on the premise that young women, in contrast to young men, were to be deemed legally incapable of consenting to an act of sexual intercourse. Because their chastity was considered particularly precious, those young women were felt to be uniquely in need of the State's protection. In contrast, young men were assumed to be capable of making such decisions for themselves; the law therefore did not offer them any special protection.
- William Brennan, American Supreme Court Justice on the different ages of consent for men and women in California law, Michael M. v. Superior Court (1981).
