The age of consent in Delaware used to be only 7 years of age. To be completely honest, that’s a total disgrace. But why was the age of consent in Delaware so low? Was the state just full of deviant pedophiles just preying on vulnerable children? No, but it wasn’t exactly an isolated case. For the vast majority of US states in the nineteenth century the age of which a minor could have sex was extremely young.
I’m not about to beat around the bush. It’s not normal for people to want to have sexual intercourse with children. It’s really one of those things that doesn’t need publication to know that it’s wrong. You don’t normally see people going around killing or robbing people, but laws are in force to punish the criminals who break the laws. So it makes perfect sense to have laws in place for the age of consent.
In todays society the age in which a minor can legally have sex varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It’s typically anywhere between he ages of 15 to 18 years. Some would argue that that is too young, especially at the younger end of the scale, but for many it is perfectly acceptable. After all, teenagers are normally rebellious and adventurous, especially when sex is concerned. But as we have already said, it wasn’t always so high.
In the nineteenth century throughout much of America the age of consent was very young. In the District of Colombia it was 12, while the rest of the US was only 10, except for one other state that bucked the trend. The age of consent in Delaware was only 7. Why it was so low, we have not been able to determine the exact explanation.
But here’s the really disturbing thing. While the age of consent in Delaware was 7 in the nineteenth century, it actually continued on in the state until the mid 1960’s. In 1962 the American Law Institute actually recommended that the age in which a minor can consent to sexual intercourse be reduced to only ten years of age across the nation.
Today the age of consent in Delaware is no longer 7, but a much more conservative 18 years of age.
