This post has been updated to reflect the age of consent in Maryland for 2024.
“What is the age of sexual consent in Maryland” is a legal question that I am asked quite often. The general rule is that the age at which a young person can legally consent to engage in intercourse, sexual contact, or a sexual act with another person is 16 years. Please see Md. Code Ann., Crim. Law 3-301 for the extensive definitions of sexual contact and sexual act under the statute.
There is an exception to this rule if the older participant is less than four years older than the other. In other words, it may or may not be illegal for a 19-year-old to have sex with a 15-year-old or an 18-year-old to have sex with a 14-year-old, depending upon when the participants’ birthdays occur.
A violation of the statute occurs if the participants’ birthdays are four years or more apart.
(Note: under the sexual child abuse statute, it is unlawful to engage in sexual conduct with a child under the age of 18 if the adult has temporary or permanent custody of the child.)
The unusual part of the statute, as compared to most criminal statutes, is that it creates a strict liability standard.
What is a strict liability standard?
- It doesn’t matter whether the child looked older than the child really was,
- whether he/she told the offender that he/she was older than he/she really was or,
- whether the offender reasonably believed the child was older than he/she really was.
The Maryland age of consent law states that if an adult four years or older than the child under 16, engages in sexual conduct with that child, he/she is guilty of either Second Degree rape, Third Degree Sex Offense, or Fourth Degree Sex Offense, depending on the respective age of the child and offender. Period. There is no knowledge or intent requirement under this statute hence the standard: strict liability.
Does the strict liability standard relate to your case?
This strict liability standard can be unfair to the defendant in certain circumstances, including a recent client of mine.
My client, who was just 19 years old at the time of the offense, rented several connecting hotel rooms one evening to throw a party. A girl had advised my client that she was 18 from when he first met her and by her appearance, she could easily pass for that age. My client believed her, but asked her to see her driver’s license, which she readily produced, showing that she was indeed 18. My client and the girl then engaged in consensual sexual intercourse. Unfortunately for my client, it turned out that the driver’s license was not hers but that of her sister. This girl was 15 years old and about 4.5 years younger than my client.
The girl had stayed out past her curfew and, after calling several of her friends, her parents determined her location. Her father went to the hotel and called the police, who knocked on the door. The police separated the two for questioning and both admitted that they had engaged in consensual intercourse. My client believed he was protected because the girl had admitted that she lied about her age and showed him her sister’s driver’s license. It was a tough pill for him to swallow that it did not matter in the eyes of the law whether he knew she was underage or not.
Because he was essentially caught red-handed and had confessed, he had no defense. While the State was unlikely to thread incarceration, the problem was having a conviction for a fourth-degree sex offense and the possibility that the judge might require him to register as a sex offender, which is within the court’s discretion on convictions for a fourth-degree sex offense (sex offender registration is mandatory for all other sex offenses).
Fortunately, the prosecutor assigned to the case was very understanding, as was the girl’s family. The State was still going to prosecute the case but neither the prosecutor nor the girls’ parents wanted his life ruined. Ultimately, I was able to work out a deal for probation before judgment which would allow him to have the matter expunged in 3 years. The judge also agreed not to order him to register as a sex offender.
For more information about the age of sexual consent or the strict liability standard in Maryland, please contact the Maryland criminal lawyers of Silverman Thompson or call Brian Thompson, at 410-659-9930 for a free consultation.
Disclaimer: This blog is informative in nature. The information contained herein is not to be considered legal advice and there is no attorney-client relationship formed between Silverman Thompson and the reader.