# Underage sex, is it rape?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underage-sex-is-it-rape/957944>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 17, 2022, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underage-sex-is-it-rape/957944 "2022-01-17T19:21:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 58

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underage-sex-is-it-rape/957944/58 "2022-01-19T13:01:54Z")

</div>

> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> An 18 y.o. having sex with a 13 y.o.? Life.

So, 5 to 6 times the average penalty for a forcible rape? Maybe we should just dust off the electric chairs.

“A study made by the [U.S. Department of Justice](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Department_of_Justice) of prison releases in 1992, involving about 80 percent of the prison population, found that the average sentence for convicted rapists was 9.8 years, while the actual time served was 5.4 years. This follows the typical pattern of violent crimes in the US, where those convicted typically serve no more than half of their sentence.”[[28]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_regarding_rape#cite_note-40)

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underage-sex-is-it-rape/957944)._