Where our information comes from

How we research

Each jurisdiction is researched independently. Age-of-consent and close-in-age laws differ significantly between states, so one state’s rules are never assumed to apply to another, even where laws appear similar.

Source hierarchy

Research draws on primary sources first: official state statutes and legislature websites, official court opinions, official jury instructions, state agency or government materials, and the U.S. Code or other official federal sources where relevant. Reputable legal references and educational or legal organizations are used as secondary sources for context and cross-checking. Where reliable sources conflict, primary legal authority takes priority.

What we verify

Depending on what a given jurisdiction’s law addresses, research may examine the age of consent, the governing statute or statutes, close-in-age rules, Romeo and Juliet provisions, affirmative defenses, offender or victim age thresholds, position-of-authority rules, related offenses, and registration-related provisions where relevant. Not every state’s law contains every one of these mechanisms.

Cross-checking

Important claims may be checked across multiple sources where appropriate, particularly when statutory language is complex or secondary sources disagree with one another.

Handling conflicting sources

When a conflict or ambiguity in the law cannot be resolved, it is disclosed rather than silently guessed at. See our editorial policy and corrections policy for how this is handled and how issues can be addressed.

Currency of legal information

Laws, statutes, interpretations, and the official webpages that publish them can change. This site does not perform real-time monitoring of legislative changes and does not guarantee a fixed update schedule; not every page will always reflect the newest possible version of the law.

Citations

Citations and source links throughout this site let readers inspect the underlying authority behind a claim directly. See our citation policy for how sources are cited.

Federal vs. state law

State and federal law can address different conduct and different jurisdictional circumstances, and both may be relevant depending on the facts involved. See our federal law page for more on how these interact.

Attorney review

Source verification and research are not the same as attorney review. This site does not claim that attorney review has occurred across its content, and individual guides may currently show a pending attorney-review status. See the editorial team page for how authorship and review roles work.

Educational purpose

Even where information is carefully sourced, it remains general educational information, not individualized legal advice. See our full legal disclaimer for more detail.