The applicable state code in Virginia is Section 18.2-63.  The “age of consent” was raised to age 15, but only if the elder person is no more than 3 years older than the consenting child.  If the elder party is 18 or older, it is a misdemeanor, even if the younger party consents.  If the adult is more than 3 years senior to the child, it is a Class 6 felony. 
   
  It is a felony [rape] to have sex with a child 12 years old or younger.  [There is no such thing as a consenting 12 year old].  Age 13-14 crimes are Class 6 felonies, some Class 4. Underage sex at age 15-17, is a misdemeanor in the first degree. 
   
  Section 18.2-271 makes it a first degree misdemeanor for anyone 18 or older to have sex with a child 15-17.  An eighteen year old can not legally have sex with a 17 year old girlfriend, even though they could marry, with parental consent.  It is no longer considered statutory rape, but is *encouraging delinquency*.  The word *rape* should be reserved for more serious crimes.  Having worked in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, I can state that the law is enforced to the best of the state’s ability, with numerous cases being prosecuted each week in each city.  I doubt the laws ever deterred teenagers from having sex. 
   
  The legal age to marry in some states is still much lower than in Virginia.  For instance, last time I looked, the marriage age in Arkansas was still age 13.  Age 10 was never universally accepted as an age of consent. It was used to distinguish between rape and consent.  It was used as a minimum age for parents to arrange marriages.  In North Carolina, a parent could marry a child off at age 10, but when the child reached the age of consent, at age 12, the marriage could be annulled, if the child didn’t consent.  [theoretically, of course]
   
  It was natural, and certainly not a moral issue, for girls as young as 12 to marry, in the colonial period. The definition of consent and the age of consenting changed when the marriage age changed. The average life span, even in 1900, was only 30-33 years of age, so it was natural to start families at a young age.
   
  Every state has equally complicated laws, which defy being put into a simplistic chart. Attempts to do so today are inaccurate and tend to be created to further political purposes. 
  
Langdon