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Conceptualizing Consent: How Prosecutors Identify Sexual Victimization in Statutory Rape Cases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2020

Jamie L. Small
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Abstract

In the wake of rape law reforms, lack of sexual consent emerged as a key element that defined sexual contact as criminal. Its presence modified the requirement of force or threat of violence, and it gained traction in campaigns to eradicate sexual assault. Little is known, however, about how prosecutors assess consent. In this article, I use the case of statutory rape to better understand the legal construction of sexual consent. By focusing on an age-based class of individuals who are sexually mature but still under the age of consent, I show how legal actors identify sexual victimization among youth. Drawing on interviews with forty-three prosecutors, I analyze prosecutorial decision making during the investigation, charging, and trial phases. I find that sexual consent is not simply a dichotomous legal category but rather a sociological process. Prosecutors define sexual victimization based on informal ideas about normative adolescent sexuality, reproducing social hierarchies based on age, gender, and sexual identity.

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Articles
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Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 111 - 131
Copyright
© 2020 American Bar Foundation 

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