Statutory rape
sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior
In some jurisdictions, statutory rape is sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent, the age required to legally consent to the activity. Although the term statutory rape usually refers to adults engaging in sexual contact with minors under the age of consent, it is a generic term, and very few jurisdictions use it in the language of statutes. In statutory rape, overt force or threat is usually not present. Statutory rape laws presume coercion because a minor or mentally disabled adult is legally incapable of giving consent to the act.
Age of consent
In many jurisdictions, the age of consent is interpreted to mean mental or functional age. As a result, victims can be of any chronological age if their mental age makes them unable to consent to a sexual act.
Specific laws depending on countries
Denmark
The law reads in Danish:
§ 222. Den, som har samleje med et barn under 15 år, straffes med fængsel indtil 8 år, medmindre forholdet er omfattet af § 216, stk. 2. Ved fastsættelse af straffen skal det indgå som en skærpende omstændighed, at gerningsmanden har skaffet sig samlejet ved udnyttelse af sin fysiske eller psykiske overlegenhed.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Statutory rape” is sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Statutory, rape and sexual, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1968926. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Statutory rape” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.