statutory rape

noun

: sexual intercourse with a person who is below the statutory age of consent

Examples of statutory rape in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

On August 5, 2011, Nichols pled guilty to statutory rape. —Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 2025

In California, the age of consent at the time was eighteen; Grey was then sixteen, which exposed Chaplin to charges of statutory rape. —Richard Brody, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025

Morales, barred from running due to term limits and facing an arrest warrant on statutory rape charges, urged supporters to cast null ballots in protest. —Adeola Adeosun, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Aug. 2025

A couple of decades after his brief tenure in the Legislature, Koenitzer, who dabbled unsuccessfully in everything from brewing to land speculation, was arrested in 1912 on charges of statutory rape. —Chris Foran, jsonline.com, 6 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1873, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for statutory rape

• agape
• escape
• landscape
• lenape
• reshape
• seascape
• soundscape
• ape
• cape
• crape
• crepe
• drape

Medical Definition

statutory rape

noun

stat·​u·​to·​ry rape ˌstach-ə-ˌtōr-ē- 

: sexual intercourse with a person who is below the age of consent as defined by law

Legal Definition

statutory rape

noun

: rape consisting of sexual intercourse with a person beneath an age (as 14 years) specified by statute

Note: Many state statutes also specify a minimum age of the perpetrator or an age differential (as at least four years) between the perpetrator and the victim. Consent of the victim and belief that the victim is of the age of consent are usually considered immaterial. Statutory rape is now codified under various names, such as rape in the second degree, rape in the third degree, unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, and criminal sexual conduct in the second degree.