News Archive

Professor Jennifer Drobac discussed a California legislator’s move to close a gap in state consent laws in an article in the Los Angeles Times published December 1.

While the loophole that made it possible for California courts to rule that minors could consent to sex with adults was opened by the California Supreme Court in 2001, the justices found that the legislature had removed non-forcible sex with minors from California’s rape laws in 1970.

California criminal law holds that sexual activity between adults and people under age 18 is illegal. A move by California Assemblywoman Nora Campos would make the age of consent 18 in civil law as well.

A furor erupted earlier this fall when the Los Angeles Unified School District used the loophole to successfully defend itself in a civil case brought by the family of a female student. The girl, who was 14 years old when she entered into a sexual relationship with a math teacher at her middle school, sued the district for damages. The district, and the attorney who was successful in the case, have come under fire as a result of the ruling. The teacher was convicted under California criminal law and sentenced to three years in prison.

But the proposed measure to fix the law doesn’t go far enough, Drobac said in the story. She notes that Campos’ measure only applies to sexual intercourse, which courts generally interpret as a heterosexual act. The abuse of boys by men might not be covered because the proposal doesn’t apply specifically to sodomy, the professor said.

Professor Drobac teaches sexual harassment law at IU McKinney. Her first textbook, Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases and Theory, was published in 2005; a new edition is expected in 2014. She also is working on a book concerning adolescent neurological and psychosocial development and the law, Worldly But Not Yet Wise, for University of Chicago Press.