"Consensual sex" is just sex.

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24. You did not answer my question. What is the point of having an age of consent?

Is it to enforce a false sense of protection? Or is it to protect those who genuinely lack the ability to give informed consent?

If it is the former, then your argument makes perfect sense. If it is the latter, you have to recognize the age of consent laws have the potential to prosecute a serious offense on behalf of a victim which knowingly consented to sex.

Age of consent laws codify an act as a serious criminal offense without regard to intent. I will not contest the incredible potential for manipulation by an 18 year old with a 15 year old. But is that manipulation so much different than if the younger person was 16? Why is one criminalized while the other is merely looked down upon?

Age of consent laws make sense when the minor does not exist along the upper limit. But as we approach the legal age of consent, we enter a territory which may actually be counter productive. And that is why each case demands unique evaluation.

And that is why I stand by my original statement that statutory rape has the potential to be both consensual sex and rape. At least under specific circumstance. That kind of contradiction in law is potentially very dangerous.