| Sumario: | Part of a special section on gender issues and the criminal law. The assumptions underpinning modern statutory rape law are challenged by contrasting them with other legal paradigms governing adolescents and with the current psychosocial literature concerning adolescence. Modern statutory rape law and the decriminalization of sexual activity involving minor females are examined. The treatment of minors in other areas of the law is discussed, assessing the degree to which the law has increased minors' rights and obligations in other civil law contexts. Current research on adolescent development is outlined, focusing on limitations on minor females' capacity for autonomy and consent in sexual interactions. It is argued that, in view of girls' vulnerability to coercion, lawmakers must revive and reconfigure the crime of statutory rape.
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