Legal definition of a &quot;child&quot; in the United States
<p>I notice that in several criminal cases women who are clearly post-pubescent teenagers are being legally characterized as &quot;children&quot;, so I am wondering about the terminology here. For example, in one case I read of man being prosecuted for &quot;rape of a child&quot;, however the the alleged &quot;child&quot; was 16 years old: clearly past the age of puberty.</p>
<p>So, normally in the English language, a &quot;child&quot; is a pre-pubescent person--in other words someone not sexually capable of procreating, which would mean 13 years old at the latest. However, apparently in legal sphere and the press there is a tendency to describe teenagers who are clearly sexually capable as &quot;children&quot; and this is obviously being done to demonize those who commit sex crimes against teenagers and increase the severity of the crime.</p>
<p>I searched for the legal definition of a &quot;child&quot; under Massachusetts law and could not find any definition. So, is it just ambiguous what the word &quot;child&quot; means in Massachusetts? What about US Federal law. Is there a legal standard of what constitutes a &quot;child&quot;?</p>

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<p>The term &quot;child&quot; is expressly defined for various offences. For example, for <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/section-172-20190919.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">s. 172</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>child means a person who is or appears to be under the age of eighteen years.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The offence of &quot;<a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/section-163.1.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">child pornography</a>&quot; is expressly defined to relate to &quot;a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years.&quot;</p>
<p>The offence of &quot;<a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-172.1-20150717.html#wb-cont" rel="nofollow noreferrer">child luring</a>&quot; has several variants, for luring those who are or who the accused believes to be under the age of 18, 16, or 14. They are all called &quot;child luring.&quot;</p>
<p>Other sections criminalize conduct in relation to a child without defining the term. See e.g. <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-243.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">s. 243</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every person who in any manner disposes of the dead body of a child, with intent to conceal the fact that its mother has been delivered of it, whether the child died before, during or after birth, is guilty...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For s. 243, courts had to conduct statutory interpretation in order to determine the meaning of the word &quot;child.&quot; The Supreme Court of Canada held that &quot;child&quot; in this offence includes children born alive and fetuses that were likely to have been born alive. See <em>R. v. Levkovic</em>, <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/13031/index.do" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2013 SCC 25</a>.</p>
<p>I know this is Canadian law, rather than Massachusetts law, but one thing you can take away from this is that terms can take on distinct legal meanings from one provision to another. And where a term is not expressly defined in statute, its meaning will be enunciated by a court. These meanings need not line up with the definitions you find in a dictionary.</p>
<p>But, for a general description from a specialized dictionary, see <em>Black's Law Dictionary</em>, 10th ed. (2014):</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>child</strong>. <strong>1</strong>. An unemancipated person under the age of majority. <strong>2</strong>. <em>Hist</em>. At common law, a person who has not reached the age of 14. <strong>3</strong>. A boy or girl; a young person. <strong>4</strong>. A son or daughter. <strong>5</strong>. A baby or fetus.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>&quot;Child&quot; in the US typically means a minor, someone who is not yet 18.  Someone would be either a child or an adult.  Your belief in coded language for some reason is not part of this legal definition.</p>
<p>Child can also mean offspring, say in the use of wills.</p>
<p>If different definitions are used, they would be defined in the applicable law.</p>
<p><a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/child/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Black's Legal dictionary</a></p>

<p>In the case of Massachusetts (Mass.) the definition of &quot;child&quot; means different things depending on the laws in question.   Generally, a &quot;child&quot; for the purposes of the legal age of criminal prosecution is defined as any child younger than 12 years old at the time of the crime (Mass. has the highest age of criminal prosecution in the United States.)  Federally, this age is any child younger than 11 years of age.</p>
<p>In terms of Age of Consent (the legal age in which a person may give consent to a sexual relationship) is 16 years and over.  Federally, this is 18 years or older.</p>
<p>Legally speaking, 18 is the age at which a person is considered a legal adult (although I know few 18 year olds who have adult sensibilities... but I also know a few 60+ year olds who have no adult sensibilities... you're only young once but you can be immature forever as they say.).   This means that you can legally vote, smoke, screw (if you're one of the prudish states that has 18 as the age of legal consent... like California.), and die for your nation (but you can't drown your sorrows until you're 21.).   Additionally, unless you are legally emancipated, your rights can be restricted by a legal guardian (parents or other parental substitute).</p>
<p>All people above the age of criminal liability but below the age of legal adulthood are also handled through a juvenile court system in the U.S. (I don't think this applies to federal courts as they don't have one, but they so rarely prosecute crimes compared to the state... let alone juvie crimes) although judges may grant exception for legal juviniles to be tried in adult court if the crime is serious enough (or they're close to legal adulthood either).  Juvie Courts are less open than adult court and any juvenile record is sealed after the offender turns 18 (meaning that if you were a 13-year-old busted for taking the neighbor's car on a joy ride, it won't follow you to adulthood in the legal system.  The public memory will not always forget).</p>
<p>In your particular scenario, one of a few things could have happened.  Either she was 16 at the time of the rape and did not consent, OR she was 15 at the time of the rape (which even if she did give consent, it doesn't matter as the law says she's not able to give it no matter what.) and has since had a 16th birthday while the trial makes its way through the courts.  Another possibility is that the relationship involved someone who was traveling from out of state OR she traveled out of state to meet him, which makes this a crime that could involve the Federal Government, in which case, she is not yet 18 and thus it was a statutory rape (even if she was consenting to the encounter).</p>
<p>Finally, the article or speaker who called her a child might not be using a legal sense of the word, but a more colloquial sense, in which case, the range is considerably broader (As a general rule, among the uninformed, child has a broad range.  While she is a teenager, she is still young enough that she would be living with her parents and not yet ready to &quot;leave the nest&quot; as an adult would.  Biologically speaking, humans have a long adolescent period compared to most animals, with a biological maturity taking as long as 25 years by some estimates.) and it's not uncommon for our language to reflect that.  As such, the claim might not be one of legal childhood, but a frame of reference to remind adults that she's still got a lot of growing up to do and the accused rapist ignored that when he had sex with her.  Remember, he's going to be judged by a jury of his peers... the prosecution wants them to use there vernacular understanding of her age, not their legal understanding.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>I searched for the legal definition of a &quot;child&quot; under Massachusetts
law and could not find any definition.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The definitions are right there in the criminal statutes. The relevant MA statutes are quite clear and different ages apply to different offenses. <em>See, e.g.</em>, the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>§ 22A. Rape of child; punishment</p>
<p>Whoever has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse with a
child under 16, and compels such child to submit by force and against
his will or compels such child to submit by threat of bodily injury,
shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for
any term of years. . . .</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 265, § 22A.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>§ 22B. Rape of a child during commission of certain offenses or by use
of force; penalties</p>
<p>Whoever has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse with a
child under 16, and compels such child to submit by force and against
his will or compels such child to submit by threat of bodily injury
and: . . .</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 265, § 22B.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>§ 22C. Rape of a child through use of force by certain previously
convicted offenders; penalties</p>
<p>Whoever has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse with a
child under 16, and compels such child to submit by force and against
his will or compels such child to submit by threat of bodily injury,
and has been previously convicted of or adjudicated delinquent or as a
youthful offender for: indecent assault and battery on a child under
14 as set forth in section 13B; aggravated indecent assault and
battery on a child under 14 as set forth in section 13B ½; indecent
assault and battery on a person 14 or older as set forth in section
13H; assault of a child with intent to commit rape as set forth in
section 24B; rape of a child with force as set forth in section 22A;
aggravated rape of a child with force as set forth in section 22B;
rape and abuse of a child as set forth in section 23; aggravated rape
and abuse of a child as set forth in section 23A; rape as set forth in
section 22; or a like violation of the laws of another state, the
United States or a military, territorial or Indian tribal authority,
shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for
any term of years, but not less than 20 years. . . .</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 265, § 22C.</p>
<p><em>See generally</em> <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter265" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 265,</a> §§ 13b to 27a.</p>

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