Age of Consent Policies

"According to the CDC report you referenced, Age of consent policies have yet to be determined as a factor in preventing or reducing teenage pregnancies:. . . Evidence suggests these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity. . . "It says right there that it is due to more abstinence. However, I will concede that it doesn't cite age of consent laws as the reason for that. "It's also worth noting the some of the limitations of that report:"LimitationsOur study had several limitations. When self-reported information is used, One must always consider the potential for over- and under-reporting. Adolescents are generally reliable reporters of information on sexual health. However, Given increasing social pressure to delay sexual initiation and avoid pregnancy, Adolescents may be more likely today than in the past to underreport sexual activity or overreport contraceptive use. Although the overall NSFG sample size is adequate, Sample sizes become problematically small in analyses of subgroups. This was particularly true for the Black and Hispanic subgroups, In which the numbers of sexually active young women fell below 100. Moreover, Variance around changes in percentages or around attribution was much larger than variance around estimates for a single point in time. As such, Care should be taken in interpreting our estimates for these smaller subgroups. . . . We assumed that there were no changes in whether contraceptives were used correctly or in biological fecundity. Correct use of contraception can be assessed via measuring changes in typical-use CFRs. We used the most recent available failure rates (for 1995). Ranjit et al. Found no changes between 1988 and 1995 in typical-use CFRs (note that questions about contraception use at most recent intercourse did assess consistency of use). 18 No data are available to measure changes in biological fecundity among teenagers (or adults). "None of those limitations pertain, Particularly, To this argument. It states that adolescents are generally reliable reporters of information as well as that the sample size is adequate. "In addition, When doing a cross-country analysis, Switzerland had the lowest rates among Western countries in teenage pregnancy"I'm failing to see how this relates to the subject at hand. "Do you have any evidence which suggests that teens who have sex with those above the age of consent puts them at more risk of contracting an STI? "That was not the argument. "Or that current age of consent policies prevent or address the prevention of teenage sexual encounters among themselves, Preventing the spread of STI's? ""Having a criminal justice system that imposes sanctions no doubt does deter criminal conduct"Source in my profile comments. "What does this have to do with age of consent policies and the effects of their measures? "The point is that age of consent policies are meant to decrease effects such as these. "Parens Patriae doesn't simply manifest in age of consent policies, But also Child Labor Policies, Which stifle Youth Employment. Furthermore, Hikes in the minimum wage are associated with declines in teenage employment (5. )"What does this have to do with age of consent? "And which of these effects are age-based, And not residuals of economic and social policy? "All of those effects would be raised in the absence of age of consent laws. "This is in fact not true:'Age of consent refers to the legally defined age at which a person is no longer required to obtain parental consent to get married. It also refers to the age at which a person is held to have the capacity to voluntarily agree to sexual intercourse. '"You misunderstood what I said. I was saying that the persistence of these laws and the reasoning behind them are the reasons that I mentioned. This has nothing to do with what age of consent is legally defined as. "So how do age of consent policies address any of that which you mentioned? Do age of consent policies address teenage pregnancy? STI contraction? How do the age-based restrictions define the effects to which you speak? ""Having a criminal justice system that imposes sanctions no doubt does deter criminal conduct. "Sources in my profile comments. The point of the age of consent laws is to deter the behaviors that I have mentioned above.