[AstralStorm]

There's no real age where you can put a cutoff. The prosecution though is allowed no discretion. Judge is neither.

Juries are supposed to use the very harsh letter of the law, no exceptions.

These laws are bad and should be reformulated to handle real life, which has corner cases (e.g. interstate romance between minors, what about it?) and where prosecution could cause more damage than it helps.

[VikingCoder]

You just completely ignored the roles of Attorneys General, District Attorneys, Governors who can pardon, Jury Nullification, judges who are not constrained by mandatory sentences... Probably more.

People deserve to have a clear law.

Everyone always hates thresholds. That's just a fact of life.

These laws are good. If you can't wait for someone to be legal, then you shouldn't be having sex with them in the first place. Find a different partner.

> prosecution could cause more damage than it helps

How about no. It's already incredibly difficult to convict someone of rape, because consent comes down to he-said / she-said. Keeping statutory rape on the books makes it much easier to convict people who went after children, at least.

PS, I am not a lawyer, or a child psychologist, and I highly doubt you are, either.