A new study has challenged the “statutory rape myth”, which emerged around the 2008 decision to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16 in Canada. The study was published in the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law.
The statutory rape myth falsely projected that this decision would lead to the criminalization of large numbers of teenage boys for engaging in consensual sexual acts with their younger teenage girlfriends. This paper demonstrates that this fear is unfounded.
In a notable flaw in the statutory rape myth, consensual sexual partners who are close in age are already protected from statutory rape charges by the ‘close-in-age exception’ under Canadian law: unless there is a relationship of trust, authority, or dependency, or any other form of exploitation, sexual partnerships between people close in age are exempted.
In reality, charges are laid for violations by men who are much older. The average individual brought to trial following the decision was 19 years older than the victim, or 16 years older if family members were removed from the calculation. Significantly, 46% of the complainants cited a male family member as the abuser, whereas only 5% cited their boyfriend.
“These were not young boyfriends engaging in sex where girls agreed to participate,” said co-author Isabel Grant in the University of British Columbia press release. “These were cases of devastating abuse by male adults in positions of trust, and family members in particular.”
Co-author Janine Benedet added that “with respect to age of consent, these are not cases where 14- and 15-year-old girls have agreed to engage in sexual activity with someone who’s 22. They are cases where she did not agree or was coerced, and he’s 40. That’s a much more typical scenario.”
Cases that make it to court are only ‘tip of the iceberg’
In Canada, approximately 61% of assaults happen to adolescents and children under 18, even though this age group only makes up 20% of the population. The highest number of assaults happen to girls and women aged 11 to 19, peaking at age 13, according to police reports.
Case law from 2014-2016 involving the sexual abuse of 625 girls aged 12-17 was sourced as part of the study. The age range was selected to keep the study in line with its main goal of debunking the statutory rape myth by restricting the ages to girls old enough to for their consensual partners to be eligible for close-in-age exception. On the other end, anyone older than 17 is considered a legal adult.
The cases included 680 written decisions from across Canada, and all levels of assault were taken into account. The complainants had an average age of 12.7 when the abuse started, and 99% of the accused were men.
The authors found an over-representation of vulnerable persons among the victims, like those in state care, the Indigenous, and the disabled.
As for the outcomes, 51% of the accused were convicted on all charges at trial, 27% pleaded guilty to a minimum of one charge, and a further 5% were found guilty of some of the charges, while 17% were acquitted completely.
Remarking on the findings, the authors emphasized that this is likely “only the tip of the iceberg. The cases that make their way through to a completed prosecution — whether convictions or acquittals — are the exception.”
“One of the things that was alarming for us was just how many cases we did find, and knowing that this represents only a tiny proportion of how many sexual assaults are actually taking place against this group of girls.”
Familial abuse is common but often overlooked
The common misconception of assaults primarily involving total strangers did not correlate with the data. Only 4% of assaults were attributed to strangers, yet they were more likely to face a conviction. This is in contrast to the overwhelming number of male family members represented in the data, a subcategory where the abuse often goes on much longer.
Benedet and Grant emphasized that a key takeaway from their work is the need for a greater focus on sexual abuse within the family unit.
“The family is an institution of enormous power, and the opportunity for abuse of that power — for enforcing secrecy — is really stark,” said Benedet. “The barriers to coming forward in the family context are very high. So we think that deserves more attention than it’s currently getting.”
