ABSTRACT
Although the average age of sexual debut in the UK is 17, a significant minority of young people in Britain experience heterosexual intercourse before the age of 16.2 Despite such widespread flaunting of the law, and ongoing campaigns to bring the age of consent for gay men into line with that for heterosexuals, the notion of an age of consent for heterosexuals receives little public scrutiny. Moves to raise the age of consent in the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 1998 where there may be an ‘abuse of trust’ (where the older party is in a position of authority, such as a teacher or social worker) reinforce rather than question the purpose of existing legislation. The law currently makes it illegal for a man to have sex with a girl under the age of 16, with a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment, or life imprisonment if the girl is under 13. While there is no defence for the latter offence, if a girl is aged between 13 and 15 and the man is under 24, he is able to defend himself on the grounds that he reasonably believed her to be over 16. The number of reports of these offences to the police, as well as police cautions and prosecutions, have fallen over the last 10 years.3
