Help! Age of consent!

[Tannersaurus]

I am 19 years old and my girlfriend is 16. Her parents would never except us being together and she is never allowed to see me. So every other night of so i drive to her house and she sneaks out and we spend the night togehter at my house. I drive her home around 4 am and she sneaks back in. My parents do not mind but they are concerned that there may be a legal issue at hand if her parents were to find out. I told themt that its not contributing to the delinquency of a minor becuase were not getting drunk or anything. We do have intercourse though on a regular basis. In New jersey i believe the age of consent is 16? whats the truth and what are the bounds of these laws. What are the penalities given to someone who gets charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor?

 

[Rathi]

Contributing has nothing to do with what you're doing.

I'd make pretty sure of laws, b4 you continue with this.

I have heard the age of consent is 16, but I really don't know for sure.

It's called statutory rape. It's very serious, and you should halt activity until you find out for sure the law. The way it sounds, I'd be pressing charges if possible, if that was my daughter.

 

[NYClex]

The parents also can sue you for infringement of their parental rights. Parents enjoy a "well-recognized liberty interest in
rearing and educating their children in accord with their own views..." including "the right to regulate their children's sexual behavior as best they can..."Alfonso v. Fernandez, 606 N.Y.S.2d 259, 265 (N.Y. App. Div. 1993), based on several fundamental Supreme Court decisions about parental rights.

You are in dangerous waters here. Even your parents could be sued.

Have a look at this thread here, where we have discussed this before: http://www.thelaw.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1108

 

[Tannersaurus]

eeek!

so your saying regardless of what happens that just beucase we are goign against her parents wishes that they can sue me for that? I'm almost 98% sure that age of consent in NJ is 16, doesn't that mean that even if her parents would like to charge me with staturtory rape that she could prevent it?

 

[NYClex]

Yes, the so called "age of consent" is 16, but that doesn't actually mean that you can do what you want.

For one thing a prosecutor can still charge you with rape when he thinks he can prove that she was not really mature enough to give consent, or that you enticed her, threatened her, drugged her or used whatever means to get her to agree. In this case her consent is invalid. And, often it is that teenage girls start waivering about their consent when being put under pressure from her parents and a prosecutor.

The other thing, yes, even if you would only give her a kiss, the parents can sue you, if it is against the explicit wishes of them. As long as she is under 18 her parents have the right to set boundaries and anyone from outside the family violating those boundaries can be sued.

I understand that this is really not what you would like to hear. But this is the reality. If her parents have been pretty cliear about what they think of her having a relationship, then you really should think hard about the risk you are taking. You are only 19. You don't want to start life with a criminal record for a sexual crime or a civil lawsuit against you. It'a about the future of both of you that you should be aware of what is at stake.