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(De)Criminalizing Adolescent Sex: A Rights-Based Assessment of Age of Consent Laws in Eastern and Southern Africa

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  • Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude
  • Ann Skelton

Abstract

Age of consent criminal laws imposed on African states during colonialism were inherently patriarchal and gender-stereotypic, and continue to influence country approaches toward adolescent consensual sexual conduct. There are two major policy positions: a punitive and a nonpunitive approach. Most countries adopt the punitive approach. Mostly, legislation does not explicitly criminalize consensual sexual conduct between adolescents, and this leaves a gray area to be filled in by social and cultural norms that perceive adolescent sexual conduct negatively. Punitive approaches have been justified as necessary to curb harms to adolescents resulting from sexual conduct, including teenage pregnancies and sexual abuse. Age of consent laws, especially in their original colonial formulation deny adolescents, especially girls, sexual autonomy and agency. States focus more on punishment than on taking measures to address the structural antecedents of harms associated with sexual intercourse. States should reform age of consent laws to decriminalize consensual sex between adolescents in accordance with recognized rights of the child.

Suggested Citation

  • Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude & Ann Skelton, 2018. "(De)Criminalizing Adolescent Sex: A Rights-Based Assessment of Age of Consent Laws in Eastern and Southern Africa," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(4), pages 21582440188, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:8:y:2018:i:4:p:2158244018806036
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244018806036
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Parikh, Shanti A., 2012. "“They arrested me for loving a schoolgirl”: Ethnography, HIV, and a feminist assessment of the age of consent law as a gender-based structural intervention in Uganda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(11), pages 1774-1782.
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