Last Updated on: 28th July 2023, 08:57 pm

New York law states the age of consent regarding sexual activity is 17-years-old. This means anyone over the age of 17 who engages in sexual activity with someone 17 will not be arrested for statutory rape. It’s a serious crime, even though it’s often mispresented in court in specific circumstances. Long Island criminal attorneys see this kind of situation all the time. Parents are angry when they find out their 17-year-old daughter is dating a man who is 21.

Young girls are upset because they don’t see why their parents are mad that they’re 15 and their boyfriend is 19. Young men are upset because they didn’t know the girl they took home from a club the night before was using a fake ID and wasn’t really of age. Will they be arrested for having sex? It’s an ugly situation, and there are many gray areas involved in this kind of case.

What is Statutory Rape?

Statutory rape is defined as having sexual intercourse with someone who is a minor, but there are more than just a few situations when this rule is loosely defined and changed. Here’s a loose breakdown of what the law in Long Island has to say about statutory rape.

– Anyone over the age of 17 is legally permitted to choose to have sex with anyone who is also over the age of 17 so long as it is consensual.
– It is illegal in every situation even if it’s consensual to have sex with anyone under the age of 11 no matter how old the other partner is. For example, if an 11-year-old and a 10-year-old consent to have sex with one another, the 11-year-old is guilty of raping the younger child.
– No one 18 or older can legally have sex with anyone younger than 13 even if it’s consensual.
– If there is less than a four-year age difference between a 17-year-old and his or her younger partner, it’s not considered rape even if the younger partner is 14.

When someone is arrested for statutory rape, it’s often because the person making the accusation is a parent. No one wants to see their underage child engaging in any sort of sexual intercourse with anyone, but it’s often a parent upset that their teen daughter is dating a man slightly older. As long as the teen daughter is 17, however, her parents cannot have her arrested.

Defending Statutory Rape

There are a lot of issues regarding statutory rape in Long Island. It’s not easy to depict the kind of punishment you might face if you are arrested, accused, and charged with this crime. It depends on your age, the age of the victim, whether it was consensual, and many other factors. The punishment changes if this is the first time you’ve been accused or the second or third. It all depends on several factors.

When you are arrested for statutory rape, you need defense. This is when a criminal attorney is on your side. We can help you prove you did not do this, or that you did not know you were doing this. One of the most common forms of defense is a lack of knowledge. For example, if a 21-year-old man goes into a nightclub in which you must be 21 to enter, he has every right to assume the woman he spends the night with is at least 21.

If he later finds out she was only 16 and used a fake ID to enter the club, she does look older, and he had sex with her, he can argue he didn’t know. Her presence in that club was an indication to him she was old enough to be there.

If a high school senior is dating a junior and her parents don’t like it. If he turns 18 on Tuesday and she doesn’t turn 17 until Friday, her parents can have him arrested for statutory rape if they can prove that he and their daughter had sex on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday when he was a legal adult and she was a minor.

Our job is to help you fight your case and prove you did not know or did not intend to engage in sexual intercourse with someone who was this much younger than you. We are well-versed in helping our clients prove their cases and figure out where they stand in terms of their future. Calling a criminal attorney might be the only way you have a future. If you’re convicted, you might be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life or at least for a few years. This makes it all but impossible to find a job, a place to live, and to live a normal life.