Dating a minor in california law

California law on underage dating applies to sexual conduct with minors. According to California law, an unlawful act of sexual intercourse occurs when an adult 18 years or older has sex with a minor under 18 who is not the spouse of the perpetrator. The degree of punishment varies according to the age of the perpetrator and the age of the minor. According to California dating law, any adult who engages in sexual intercourse with a minor not more than three years younger than the perpetrator is guilty of a misdemeanor. Any adult who engages in sex with minors more than three years younger is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony punishable by imprisonment in a county jail or or state prison for not more than one year. Any person 21 years or older who has sex with a minor under 16 years of age is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony punishable by time in a county jail not exceeding a year or by imprisonment in a state prison for two to four years.

From the amounts collected for each case, an amount equal to the costs of pursuing the action shall be deposited with the treasurer of the county in which the judgment was entered, and the remainder shall be deposited in the Underage Pregnancy Prevention Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury. Amounts deposited in the Underage Pregnancy Prevention Fund may be used only for the purpose of preventing underage pregnancy upon appropriation by the Legislature. The court shall, however, take into consideration the defendant's ability to pay, and no defendant shall be denied probation because of his or her inability to pay the fine permitted under this subdivision. In prosecutions under Section , , , a, or , in which consent is at issue, "consent" shall be defined to mean positive cooperation in act or attitude pursuant to an exercise of free will.

By Monica Steiner , Contributing Author. In California, it is illegal for an adult someone 18 or older to have sex with a minor someone younger than 18 , even if the sex is consensual. Those who break the law have committed statutory rape.

In the United States, age of consent laws regarding sexual activity are made at the state level. There are several federal statutes related to protecting minors from sexual predators, but laws regarding specific age requirements for sexual consent are left to individual states , District of Columbia , and territories. Depending on the jurisdiction, the legal age of consent ranges from age 16 to age In some places, civil and criminal laws within the same state conflict with each other.