Kate Winslet Offended By the Term "Statutory Rape"

In a recent interview with actress Kate Winslet on ComingSoon.net, the following discussion took place:

Q: Do you ever have any trepidations about approaching controversial material like abortion in "Revolutionary Road" or statutory rape?

Ms. Winslet: I'm so sorry, "statutory rape"? I've got to tell you, I'm so offended by that. No, I really am. I genuinely am. To me, that is absolutely not this story at all. That boy knows exactly what he's doing. For a start, Hanna Schmitz thinks that he's seventeen, not fifteen, you know? She's not doing anything wrong.

Winslet's comments lead to a series of posts on Althouse (1, 2) and the Volokh Conspiracy.  As Althouse notes, Winslet's comments are "more of an argument for abolishing the crime of statutory rape," than a defense to the crime.  Volokh, on the other hand, offered this explanation of the statutory rape law

As to the legal question, in the country where the movie is apparently set — Germany — sex between an adult and a 15-year-old is now generally not statutory rape: The age of consent there is 14. I don't know what it was in Germany in the late 1940s, but I can say that in many American states it was 14 until the 1990s (the latest to change, I believe, was Hawaii, around 2000). Throughout much of American history, the age of consent was 15 or less (often significantly less).

Also, be sure to check out this Volokh post from April 30, 2008 discussing age of consent in the Western World. I don't think it is fair to expect celebrity actors to have a good grip on legal questions, but that rarely seems to stop them from talking as though they do. In this case, though, Winslet is essentially correct that a seventeen-year old is considered to be old enough to consent to sex under American law.

Comments

[Daniel]

That chart is interesting although that data as been complied elsewhere, I'm not sure why Eugene felt the need to recreate it. It's main problem is that ignores that fact that particularly in the USA we have laws that examine the age difference between the partner. For example, in New Mexico the age of consent is 16 provided that age difference between the partners is no greater than three years. There was a recent conviction for stat rape where the 19 year old was three days (yes, three days) past the three year cut off.

So the data in this type of analysis is very misleading. It would be one thing if the age limit was a bright line rule, but it is not.