Legal Question in Constitutional Law in California

Re: the legal age that you can date an 18 year old

I see we have the official word. I apologize, I was mistaken about what I thought.

Re: the legal age that you can date an 18 year old

Yes you can date him, that is legal. Were you asking about being intimate with the man also? I believe that is also legal if you are 17 and he is 18.

Re: the legal age that you can date an 18 year old

You can date him but you cannot have sex with him. Mr. Okorocha's answer says that he thinks the two of you can legally have sex, but he is wrong.

A man 18 or older who has sex with a girl under 18 is commiting statutory rape (unless they are legally married, which clearly is not the case here). The fact that the potential boyfriend is only one year older than you will make his offense a misdemeanor rather than a felony, but it is still a crime.

Here are the pertinent excerpts from Penal Code 261.5, which governs statutory rape:

261.5. (a) Unlawful sexual intercourse is an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person who is not the spouse of the perpetrator, if the person is a minor. For the purposes of this section, a "minor" is a person under the age of 18 years and an "adult" is a person who is at least 18 years of age.

(b) Any person who engages in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is not more than three years older or three years younger than the perpetrator, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(c) Any person who engages in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is more than three years younger than the perpetrator is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony, and

shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.

(d) Any person 21 years of age or older who engages in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is under 16 years of age is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony, and shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years.