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Say an adult is raped by a minor, and does not give legally applicable consent regardless of knowledge of age of the minor. Do statutory rape charges against the adult still apply?

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    Furthermore, is there any record of such a rape being prosecuted? Nov 8, 2016 at 12:23
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    @AmmarBandukwala Yes, and many.
    – forest
    Feb 25, 2019 at 8:16

3 Answers 3

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This article1 directly addresses the question, "If a juvenile rapes an adult, does the adult thereby commit statutory rape?"

It concludes:

When an adult is raped by a juvenile, the offense of statutory rape imposes criminal liability on the adult for the same intercourse by which the adult is a victim of rape. In this way, the offense of statutory rape criminalizes being raped; it criminalizes being the victim of rape. It criminalizes the failure to prevent or resist being raped by a juvenile. And neither defenses specific to statutory rape nor defenses of general application satisfactorily preclude liability.

1. Christopher, Russell L. and Christopher, Kathryn H. (2012) "The Paradox of Statutory Rape," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 87: Iss. 2, Article 1.

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S 130.25 Rape in the third degree.

A person is guilty of rape in the third degree when:

  1. He or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person who is incapable of consent by reason of some factor other than being less than seventeen years old;
  2. Being twenty-one years old or more, he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person less than seventeen years old; or
  3. He or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person without such person`s consent where such lack of consent is by reason of some factor other than incapacity to consent.

Looks like rape is a strict liability offence - that is, unlike some crimes where you need to prove that the criminal act was committed with intent of some kind (or sometimes recklessness), the intent is irrelevant; it is enough that the criminal act occurred.

With that in mind, the answer is most likely yes.

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    "He or she engages"... I would claim that a rape victim didn't engage in anything.
    – gnasher729
    May 29, 2018 at 21:32
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tl;dr: Yes.

As a convicted sex offender for being raped by a 14 year old while I was a nearly unconscious 20 year old... law was not on my side. I was literally sent 2nd degree sexual assault charges thru the mail nearly 6 months after the incident occurred. I was never questioned by police. Once. Just sent me a piece of paper like it was a parking ticket. Come to find out the same school police officer who made me file a report I was raped at 16 or face an underage. Same school police officer made this 14 year old give a statement I gave him a blowjob so he wouldn't get a charge himself. I took the plea deal as in my lawyer avised me to or I could get years in prison because no one would believe me.

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    I'm taken aback that this is actually possible. Have you ever, even simply out of curiosity, spoken to another attorney about what happened and how it turned out for you (I'm sure this is incredibly traumatic for you, so I don't mean to trivialize this by implying you'd just be speaking to people about it 'out of curiosity' - but I can certainly imagine you might be wondering...)? I wonder when this occurred. I can't imagine a present-day jury would bring back a conviction... but as recently as a few years ago, I imagine that could have been a possibility.
    – A.fm.
    Mar 24, 2018 at 20:28
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    I am not a lawyer but it was my understanding that if your life is in danger from a criminal, you can violate any law to save it. For example if somebody is pointing a loaded gun at me, I can drive drunk to get away. Am I wrong?
    – Bob
    Mar 26, 2022 at 0:28

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