What is the law pertaining to relationships between minors and persons over 21 in Massachusetts?

Answer 1

The age at which a minor (either gender) can enter into a consensual sexual relationship is 16. However, MA. Statute, Chapter 272:Section 4, Inducing Persons Under 18 To Have Sexual Intercourse, states: "If a minor 16 or 17 years of age is a virgin, sex is illegal." The even stranger issue is, there are not established grounds (precedence) nor procedures for the enforcement of this statute. I found this answer on The Forum for Massachusetts Law (www.malawforum.com): In Massachusetts it is illegal to have sexual intercourse with a child who has not yet reached his or her sixteenth birthday (Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 265, Section 23). The law defines intercourse broadly (assume that penetration by either party of any orifice by any body part is covered). Consent of the minor or ignorance of his or her age is not a defense. Moreover, the person accused of this crime may be prosecuted even when the victim does not want to prosecute and refuses to cooperate. If convicted, the accused may be imprisoned "for life or any term of years." If both parties are under sixteen then, technically, both parties have committed a crime. However, when presented with such cases, prosecutors tend to exercise their prosecutorial discretion and decline to prosecute either party. Interestingly, it is also illegal in Massachusetts to "induce any person under 18 years of age of chaste life to have unlawful sexual intercourse" (Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 272, Section 4). However, this Section is almost never prosecuted, perhaps because of the difficulty of establishing the element of the victim's "chaste" life.