Colorado’s age of consent is 17 years old. This means you can be convicted of statutory rape for having sex with a minor under 17, even if they wanted the sex.
However, lawmakers recognize that it is normal for teenagers to hook up with each other, so Colorado has a Romeo and Juliet law – also called the “close-in-age exemption.” This allows you to have sex with someone under the age of consent in two circumstances:
- The minor is 15 or 16, and you are less than 10 years older than them; or
- The minor is 14 or younger, and you are less than four years older than them.
Examples
- Jeremy (17) can consent to sex with Kim (24) because they both reached the age of consent (17).
- Fred (15) can lawfully consent to sex with Kim (24) because they are less than 10 years apart.
- Sally (14) can lawfully consent to sex with Fred (15) and Jeremy (17) because they are less than four years older than her.
- Sally (14) cannot consent to sex with Kim (24) because their age difference is at least 10 years.
To help you better understand the law, our Denver Colorado criminal defense lawyers answer the following frequently asked questions:
- 1. What is the point of age of consent laws?
- 2. What are the penalties for statutory rape?
- 3. What if the minor lied about being 17 or appeared 17?
- 4. What if the minor initiated the sex?
- 5. What if we fooled around, but there was no sex?
- 6. How do I fight the charges?
- 7. What if we are married?
- 8. What is consent?
- 9. Related Offenses
- Additional Reading
1. What is the point of age of consent laws?
Sex is a big decision that could result in pregnancy, the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and social stigmas, all of which have lifelong physical and emotional consequences.
Therefore, Colorado’s statutory rape laws deter adults from entering into a sexual relationship with minors under 17 years old, who are too immature to make such important decisions about parenthood and personal health.
Note that you face statutory rape charges for having any kind of penetrative sex with a minor under 17. This includes
- Vaginal intercourse (“sexual intercourse”),
- Oral copulation (“fellatio” or “cunnilingus”),
- Anal sex,
- Anilingus,
- Fingering, or
- Penetration with a foreign object.
As discussed above, Colorado’s Romeo and Juliet law makes an exception for close-in-age young adults, as summarized in this table.1
Minor Under the Age of Consent (17) | Lawful Sex Partner in Colorado |
15- or 16-year-old | Someone who is less than 10 years older |
14-year-old or younger | Someone who is less than 4 years older |
2. What are the penalties for statutory rape?
In Colorado, statutory rape is prosecuted as sexual assault (CRS 18-3-402).2 This chart illustrates the penalties.
Statutory Rape in Colorado | Criminal Sentence |
The minor was younger than 15, and you are at least 4 years older | Class 4 felony: 2 to 6 years in prison and/or $2,000 to $500,000 plus sex offender registration |
The minor is 15 or 16, and you are at least 10 years older | Class 6 felony: 1 year to 18 months in prison and/or $1,000 to $100,000 plus sex offender registration |
3. What if the minor lied about being 17 or appeared 17?
It does not matter. Unless you fall under Colorado’s Romeo and Juliet exception, you can be convicted of statutory rape for having consensual penetrative sex with a minor under 17 even if:
- You genuinely thought the minor was at least 17,
- The minor looked at least 17, and/or
- The minor lied about being at least 17.3
4. What if the minor initiated the sex?
It also does not matter. Unless Colorado’s Romeo and Juliet exception applies to your case, it is always considered rape to have penetrative sex with someone under the age of consent even if they wanted or initiated the sex.4
5. What if we fooled around, but there was no sex?
In Colorado, minors under 15 years old cannot lawfully consent to sexual groping with anyone at least four years older. Sexual groping comprises touching of breasts, buttocks, or genital areas for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification, or abuse.
Sexual groping with a minor 14 or younger is typically prosecuted in Colorado as sexual assault on a child (CRS 18-3-405). The class 4 felony penalties include:
- 2 to 6 years in prison and/or $2,000 to $500,000 and
- Sex offender registration.5
6. How do I fight the charges?
Here at Colorado Legal Defense Group, we have represented literally thousands of people charged with statutory rape-related crimes. In our experience, judges, juries, and prosecutors are aware that many people who get charged with sex offenses are wrongfully accused.
Two common defenses we rely on are:
- The alleged victim was at least 17: Perhaps your accuser lied to police about being underage to get you into trouble. We see cases all the time where vengeful exes levy false accusations because they feel spurned or rejected. Once we show the D.A. their birth certificate or similar records that prove their age, the criminal charge should be dropped.
- No sexual conduct or contact occurred: Since most sexual encounters are not recorded, prosecutors often have a hard time proving that anything physical happened. In many cases, we find evidence of contemporaneous text messages from the accuser indicating that no sexual touching occurred. As long as there is a “reasonable doubt” as to your guilt, criminal charges cannot stand.
Remember that honestly believing the minor was at least 17 – called a “mistake of fact” – is not a defense to criminal charges. This is because statutory rape is a strict liability crime.6
7. What if we are married?
Lawfully married couples can legally have sex with each other in Colorado no matter their ages or age difference. (Colorado does not recognize common law marriage when one of the partners is under 18.)
Note that 16- and 17-year-olds can marry in Colorado only with the consent of both parents or legal guardians. For minors under 16, the judge must also sign off on the union.7
8. What is consent?
With regard to sex, consent is when you freely and voluntarily agree to engage in sex acts. As discussed above, the law makes consent impossible for minors under 17 unless they fit into one of the two close-in-age exemptions.
However, minors under 17 are not the only people legally unable to consent to sex in Colorado. Also unable to consent to sex are people who either:
- are intoxicated or unconscious,
- are suffering from a physical or mental condition that makes it impossible to signal consent or understand what is going on,
- are under duress or being coerced,
- are being physically forced against their will,
- are being tricked into having sex with one person while under the reasonable impression they are someone else, or
- are in custody at a hospital or detention center, and a person with supervisory authority takes advantage of them.
Just in 2021, Colorado enacted a new law making it a class 1 misdemeanor for educators to have sex with students at least 18 years old (unless the age difference is four years or less). It does not matter that the students are adults. Penalties include up to 364 days in jail and/or $1,000.8
9. Related Offenses
- Sexual assault of a child by one in a position of trust (CRS 18-3-405.3): Criminalizes sexual contact with a child by someone in a position of trust over the child, such as teachers, physicians, clergy, etc.
- Sexual exploitation of a child (CRS 18-6-403): Prohibits creating, possessing, or distributing child pornography and exploiting children for sexual purposes.
- Internet sexual exploitation of a child (CRS 18-3-405.4): Criminalizes using the internet to coerce or induce a child under 15 to expose intimate parts or perform sexual acts.
- Procurement of a child for sexual exploitation (CRS 18-6-404): Prohibits recruiting or enticing a child to participate in pornography.
Additional Reading
For more in-depth information on the age of consent, refer to these scholarly articles:
- Romeo and Juliet Were Sex Offenders: An Analysis of the Age of Consent and a Call for Reform – University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review.
- The Age of Consent – Yale Law Journal.
- You Can Touch, But You Can’t Look: Examining the Inconsistencies in Our Age of Consent and Child Pornography Laws – Southern California Law Review.
- A Bee Line in the Wrong Direction: Science, Teenagers, and the Sting to the Age of Consent – Journal of Law and Politics.
- Age of Consent – Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality.
Legal References:
- CRS 18-3-402 – Sexual Assault
(1) Any actor who knowingly inflicts sexual intrusion or sexual penetration on a victim commits sexual assault if:
(a) The actor causes sexual intrusion or sexual penetration knowing the victim does not consent; or
(b) The actor knows that the victim is incapable of appraising the nature of the victim’s conduct; or
(c) The actor knows that the victim submits erroneously, believing the actor to be the victim’s spouse; or
(d) At the time of the commission of the act, the victim is less than fifteen years of age and the actor is at least four years older than the victim and is not the spouse of the victim; or
(e) At the time of the commission of the act, the victim is at least fifteen years of age but less than seventeen years of age and the actor is at least ten years older than the victim and is not the spouse of the victim; or
(f) The victim is in custody of law or detained in a hospital or other institution and the actor has supervisory or disciplinary authority over the victim and uses this position of authority to coerce the victim to submit, unless the act is incident to a lawful search; or
(g) The actor, while purporting to offer a medical service, engages in treatment or examination of a victim for other than a bona fide medical purpose or in a manner substantially inconsistent with reasonable medical practices; or
(h) The victim is physically helpless and the actor knows the victim is physically helpless and the victim has not consented.
(2) Sexual assault is a class 4 felony, except as provided in subsections (3), (3.5), (4), and (5) of this section.
(3) If committed under the circumstances of subsection (1)(e) of this section, sexual assault is a class 6 felony. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person convicted of subsection (1)(e) of this section is eligible to petition for removal from the registry in accordance with section 16-22-113 (1)(b).
(3.5) Sexual assault is a class 3 felony if committed under the circumstances described in paragraph (h) of subsection (1) of this section.
(4) Sexual assault is a class 3 felony if it is attended by any one or more of the following circumstances:
(a) The actor causes submission of the victim through the actual application of physical force or physical violence; or
(b) The actor causes submission of the victim by threat of imminent death, serious bodily injury, extreme pain, or kidnapping, to be inflicted on anyone, and the victim believes that the actor has the present ability to execute these threats; or
(c) The actor causes submission of the victim by threatening to retaliate in the future against the victim, or any other person, and the victim reasonably believes that the actor will execute this threat. As used in this paragraph (c), “to retaliate” includes threats of kidnapping, death, serious bodily injury, or extreme pain.
(d) The actor has substantially impaired the victim’s power to appraise or control the victim’s conduct by employing, without the victim’s consent, any drug, intoxicant, or other means for the purpose of causing submission.
(e) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2002, p. 1578, § 2, effective July 1, 2002.)
(5)
(a) Sexual assault is a class 2 felony if any one or more of the following circumstances exist:
(I) In the commission of the sexual assault, the actor is physically aided or abetted by one or more other persons; or
(II) The victim suffers serious bodily injury; or
(III) The actor is armed with a deadly weapon or an article used or fashioned in a manner to cause a person to reasonably believe that the article is a deadly weapon or represents verbally or otherwise that the actor is armed with a deadly weapon and uses the deadly weapon, article, or representation to cause submission of the victim.
(b)
(I) If a defendant is convicted of sexual assault pursuant to this subsection (5), the court shall sentence the defendant in accordance with section 18-1.3-401 (8)(e). A person convicted solely of sexual assault pursuant to this subsection (5) shall not be sentenced under the crime of violence provisions of section 18-1.3-406 (2). Any sentence for a conviction under this subsection (5) shall be consecutive to any sentence for a conviction for a crime of violence under section 18-1.3-406.
(II) The provisions of this paragraph (b) shall apply to offenses committed prior to November 1, 1998.
(6) Any person convicted of felony sexual assault committed on or after November 1, 1998, under any of the circumstances described in this section shall be sentenced in accordance with the provisions of part 10 of article 1.3 of this title.
(7) A person who is convicted on or after July 1, 2013, of a sexual assault under this section, upon conviction, shall be advised by the court that the person has no right:
(a) To notification of the termination of parental rights and no standing to object to the termination of parental rights for a child conceived as a result of the commission of that offense;
(b) To allocation of parental responsibilities, including parenting time and decision-making responsibilities for a child conceived as a result of the commission of that offense;
(c) Of inheritance from a child conceived as a result of the commission of that offense; and
(d) To notification of or the right to object to the adoption of a child conceived as a result of the commission of that offense. - Same.
- Same.
- Same.
- Same.
- See also United States v. Wray, (10th Cir. 2015) 776 F.3d 1182.
- CRS 14-2-106.
- See note 1. CRS 18-8-410. SB21-017.