Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington

Re: legal age of consent

Sixteen years is the legal age of consent. However, there are exceptions - the following two statutes describe two exceptions (1. incest; 2. five-year age difference and perpetrator abuses a supervisory position or is a school employee having relations/contact with a student). Review the following two statutes.

______________________________________________

RCW 9A.64.020

Incest. (Effective July 1, 2004.)

(1)(a) A person is guilty of incest in the first degree if he or she engages in sexual intercourse with a person whom he or she knows to be related to him or her, either legitimately or illegitimately, as an ancestor, descendant, brother, or sister of either the whole or the half blood.

(b) Incest in the first degree is a class B felony.

(2)(a) A person is guilty of incest in the second degree if he or she engages in sexual contact with a person whom he or she knows to be related to him or her, either legitimately or illegitimately, as an ancestor, descendant, brother, or sister of either the whole or the half blood.

(b) Incest in the second degree is a class C felony.

(3) As used in this section:

(a) "Descendant" includes stepchildren and adopted children under eighteen years of age;

(b) "Sexual contact" has the same meaning as in RCW 9A.44.010; and

(c) "Sexual intercourse" has the same meaning as in RCW 9A.44.010.

______________

RCW 9A.44.096

Sexual misconduct with a minor in the second degree.

(1) A person is guilty of sexual misconduct with a minor in the second degree when: (a) The person has, or knowingly causes another person under the age of eighteen to have, sexual contact with another person who is at least sixteen years old but less than eighteen years old and not married to the perpetrator, if the perpetrator is at least sixty months older than the victim, is in a significant relationship to the victim, and abuses a supervisory position within that relationship in order to engage in or cause another person under the age of eighteen to engage in sexual contact with the victim; or (b) the person is a school employee who has, or knowingly causes another person under the age of eighteen to have, sexual contact with a registered student of the school who is at least sixteen years old and not married to the employee, if the employee is at least sixty months older than the student.

(2) Sexual misconduct with a minor in the second degree is a gross misdemeanor.