3 ms·

Consent has to do with mental maturity, not physical.

• belorn 6y ago
  The mind finishes maturing at the age of 25. The medical evidence for that is pretty much established, and is why a lot of researchers want to (at minimum) abolish the death sentence for anyone younger. It is quite questionable if one should hold people responsible for behavior before their mind has finished developing. A similar argument could be made about driving. At the age of 16, the impulse control is severely underdeveloped, likely by evolutionary benefits. New experiences invoke a much stronger endocrine response than for fully matured individuals, and with faster depletion rate. A driving license should really be around age 20+ if one would follow mental maturity. Sweden have set it to 18. We have so many different age lines. Driving, drinking, military service, voting, consent, crime, legal responsibility. 25 would be a great line for it all based on medical data. In Sweden we expect young people to have the mind around 15 to start having sex with each other, but we don't trust that they have the mental capacity to drive before 18. Is the numbers that the US use better? Worse? Is the answer political? I would say yes.