
Statutory Rape Statutory Rape laws are based on the premise that until a person reaches a certain age, that individual is legally incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse. Thus, it is a crime for an adult to have sexual intercourse with a person under the legal age of consent, which is 18 years of age. California’s statutory rape law is found in Penal Code Section 261.5. California has begun a concerted effort to use its statutory rape laws as a means of reducing pregnancies and births among minors. The attempt was prompted by recent research indicating that two-thirds of babies b...








It's 1809. Thirteen year-old Thomasina and her twenty two year old tutor Septimus sit at a large table in a room overlooking the expansive gardens of Thomasina's family estate. Septimus is reading a poem, "The Couch of Eros," to himself. Thomasina is supposed to be studying mathematics, but instead she asks Septimus what the phrase "carnal embrace" means. At first, he tells her that it means embracing a large piece of meat (carnal, from the latin carnis, or meat). But when Thomasina tells him that Mrs. Chater, the wife of the man who wrote the poem Septimus is reading, was seen in a carnal embrace with Mr. Noakes, the landscape gardener, Septimus explains that "carnal embrace" is another way of saying "