Colorado’s statutory rape legal guidelines embrace a close-in-age exemption, sometimes called a “Romeo and Juliet” provision. This exemption narrows the scope of the regulation, stopping the prosecution of consensual sexual exercise between people shut in age, even when one companion is beneath the age of consent. As an illustration, in Colorado, the age of consent is 17. Nonetheless, the close-in-age exemption usually protects people 15 and older from being prosecuted for sexual exercise with somebody inside a specified age vary, sometimes 4 years youthful or youthful. This implies a 19-year-old wouldn’t essentially be prosecuted for having consensual intercourse with a 15-year-old.
Such provisions goal to stop criminalizing consensual sexual exercise between younger folks in typical adolescent relationships whereas nonetheless defending minors from exploitation by considerably older people. These legal guidelines acknowledge the developmental realities of adolescence and try and stability the necessity to defend younger folks with the avoidance of overly harsh penalties for age discrepancies in consensual relationships. Traditionally, these legal guidelines have emerged from the popularity that strict statutory rape legal guidelines can typically result in unintended penalties, resembling prosecuting younger folks engaged in typical teenage relationships.
