被禁止的性行为与性暴力

成人与儿童的性接触: 定义 2

当我们考虑到个体在什么年龄才有同意发生性交的法定允诺能力时，这件事情甚至变得更为复杂了。在不同的国家，这个“允诺年龄（age of consent）”是不相同的，从13周岁（西班牙）到20周岁（突尼斯）不等。此外，对于不同形式的性接触以及区分异性和同性性活动（在许多国家完全违法，甚至对成人也是违法。）方面，有些允诺的权限设定了不同的年龄限制。对于商业化的性接触与非商业化的性接触的限制，也可能不相同，对前者限定的最低年龄要高于后者的最低年龄。不过，无论怎样定义发生性接触的允诺年龄，与“低于法定年龄（under age）”的女性和男性的性接触就是犯罪行为。[在日常生活语言里，人们有时把这样的性接触说成是“与未成年人的性行为（sex with a minor）”，而且这可能让人产生误解。严格地说，“未成年人”是指尚未达到成人期的个体，而进入法定成人期的年龄通常比“允诺年龄”要大。]至少，由低于法定允诺年龄的个人给予的允诺在法律上是无效的，并且以这样的允诺所发生的性接触等同于“法定强奸（statutory rape）”[1]，即由法律条令裁定的强奸。

最后要说的是，在法律和公众观点之间常常有极大的差异。在一些国家，普通大众认为法定年龄限制过于严苛和不切实际。其结果是，在这些国家，人们出于道德良心而不会理睬这些法定的年龄限制条款。而在其它的国家，人们发现法律过于宽松。常常的情形是，大多数公民甚至并不知晓有这样的法律条款存在，而且也罕有或选择性地强制执行的。

简而言之，像我们这样一门概要性的导论课程，不可能对这个非常庞大的议题做出详尽的阐释，而且只好对一些基本的观察研究资料进行一般性的讨论。

Prohibited Sexual Behavior and Sexual Violence

Adult Sexual Contact with Children: Definitions 2

The matter becomes even more complicated when one considers the age at which an individual becomes legally competent to agree to sexual intercourse. This “age of consent” is different in different countries. It ranges from 13 (in Spain) to 20 (in Tunisia). Moreover, some jurisdictions establish different age limits for different forms of sexual contact and also differentiate between heterosexual and homosexual activity (completely illegal in many countries, even for adults). There may also be a higher minimum age for commercial than for non-commercial sex. However, no matter how the age of consent is defined, sexual contact with a female or male “under age” is a crime. (In everyday language, people sometimes refer to such contact as “sex with a minor”, and this can be confusing. Strictly speaking, a “minor” is an individual who has not yet reached adulthood, but the age of entering legal adulthood is usually higher than the “age of consent”.) At any rate, consent given by someone under the age of consent is legally invalid, and the contact therefore amounts to “statutory rape”, i.e. rape as defined by legal statute.
Finally, there is often a great discrepancy between the law and public opinion. In some countries the general population regards the legal age limits as too strict and unrealistic. As a result, people ignore them in good conscience. In other countries, people find the laws too lenient. Often, they are even unknown to most citizens and are only rarely or selectively enforced.
In short, a general introductory course like this one cannot go into every detail of this very large topic and has to restrict itself to some general observations.