Editing Age of consent (section)

===Reforms in the 19th and 20th century===
A general shift in social and legal attitudes toward issues of sex occurred during the modern era. Attitudes on the appropriate age of permission for females to engage in sexual activity drifted toward adulthood. While ages from ten to thirteen years were typically regarded as acceptable ages for sexual consent in [[western world|Western countries]] during the mid-19th century,<ref name="waites" /> by the end of the 19th century changing attitudes towards sexuality and childhood resulted in the raising of the age of consent.<ref name="chnm.gmu.edu"/>

[[File:William Thomas Stead.jpg|thumb|200 px|Several articles written by British investigative journalist [[William Thomas Stead]] in the late 19th century on the issue of [[child prostitution]] in London led to public outrage and ultimately to the raising of the age of consent to 16.]]

English [[common law]] had traditionally set the age of consent within the range of ten to twelve years old, but the [[Offences Against the Person Act 1875]] raised this to thirteen in Great Britain and Ireland. Early feminists of the [[Social Purity movement]], such as [[Josephine Butler]] and others, instrumental in securing the repeal of the [[Contagious Diseases Acts]], began to turn towards the problem of [[child prostitution]] by the end of the 1870s. Sensational media revelations about the scourge of child prostitution in London in the 1880s then caused outrage among the respectable middle-classes, leading to pressure for the age of consent to be raised again.

The investigative journalist [[William Thomas Stead]] of the ''[[Pall Mall Gazette]]'' was pivotal in exposing the problem of child prostitution in the London underworld through a publicity stunt. In 1885 he "purchased" one victim, [[Eliza Armstrong case|Eliza Armstrong]], the thirteen-year-old daughter of a [[chimney sweep]], for five pounds and took her to a brothel where she was drugged. He then published a series of four exposés entitled ''[[The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon]]'', which shocked its readers with tales of child prostitution and the abduction, procurement, and sale of young English virgins to Continental "pleasure palaces". The "Maiden Tribute" was an instant sensation with the reading public, and Victorian society was thrown into an uproar about prostitution. Fearing riots on a national scale, the [[Home Secretary]], [[William Vernon Harcourt (politician)|Sir William Harcourt]], pleaded in vain with Stead to cease publication of the articles. A wide variety of reform groups held protest meetings and marched together to [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]] demanding that the age of consent be raised. The government was forced to propose the [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885]], which raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen and clamped down on prostitution.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/20097046|title = Child prostitutes: How the age of consent was raised to 16|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140727184445/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/20097046|archive-date = 27 July 2014|last = Hogenbloom|first = Melissa|date = 1 November 2012|publisher = BBC History}}</ref>

In the United States, as late as the 1880s most states set the minimum age at ten to twelve (in Delaware, it was seven in 1895).<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|date=15 October 1895|title=PURITY CONGRESS MEETS; A Great Gathering for Moral Work in the City of Baltimore. AIMS AND OBJECTS OF THE MOVEMENT Determined to Prevent State Regulation of Vice and to Rescue Fallen Men and Fallen Women.|location=Baltimore|title-link=:s:The New York Times/1895/10/15/Purity Congress Meets}}</ref> Inspired by the "Maiden Tribute" articles, female reformers in the U.S. initiated their own campaign,<ref>''Delinquent Daughters: Policing and Protecting Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885–1920.'' by Mary Odem. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. {{ISBN|978-0807863671}}.</ref> which petitioned legislators to raise the legal minimum age to at least sixteen, with the ultimate goal to raise the age to eighteen. The campaign was successful, with almost all states raising the minimum age to between sixteen and eighteen years by 1920.<ref name="chnm.gmu.edu"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/teacher/aoc.htm |title=Campaign to Raise the Legal Age of Consent, 1885–1914, Lesson Plan |publisher=Womhist.alexanderstreet.com |access-date=30 June 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100617063339/http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/teacher/aoc.htm| archive-date= 17 June 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref>

In [[France]], Portugal, Denmark, the [[Swiss canton]]s and other countries, the minimum age was raised to between thirteen and sixteen years in the following decades.<ref name="chnm.gmu.edu"/> Though the original arguments for raising the age of consent were based on morality, since then the ''raison d'être'' of the laws has changed to [[child welfare]] and a so-called right to childhood or innocence.<ref>''The Emergence of a New Taboo: The Desexualization of Youth in Western Societies Since 1800.'' by Martin Killias. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Vol.8 (2000). {{ISSN|0928-1371}}.</ref>

In France, under the [[Napoleonic Code]], the age of consent was set in 1832 at eleven,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000515393|title=Loi du 28 avril 1832 CONTENANT DES MODIFICATIONS AU CODE PENAL ET AU CODE D'INSTRUCTION CRIMINELLE—Legifrance|access-date=29 June 2015}}</ref> and was raised to thirteen in 1863.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000882642|title=Loi du 13 mai 1863 PORTANT MODIFICATION DE PLUSIEURS ARTICLES DU CODE PENAL—Legifrance|access-date=29 June 2015}}</ref> It was increased to fifteen in 1945.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000516232|title=Ordonnance n°45-1456 du 2 juillet 1945 ABROGE ET REMPLACE L'ART. 331 (AL. 1 ET 2) DU CODE PENAL, MODIFIE PAR LA LOI DU 13-05-1863 (ATTENTAT A LA PUDEUR CONTRE UN ENFANT DE MOINS DE 15 ANS OU NON EMANCIPE PAR LE MARIAGE POUR LES PLUS DE 15 ANS, PUNI DE RECLUSION)—Legifrance|access-date=29 June 2015}}</ref> In the 1970s, [[French petition against age-of-consent laws|a group of prominent French intellectuals advocated for the repeal of the age of consent laws]], but did not succeed.

In [[Spain]], it was set in 1822 at "puberty age", and changed to twelve in 1870,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://sirio.ua.es/libros/BDerecho/codigo_penal/ima0119.htm|title = Código penal reformado|access-date = 29 June 2015|date = 17 June 1870|website = sirio.ua.es}}</ref> which was kept until 1999, when it became 13;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1973-1715|title=BOE.es—Documento BOE-A-1973-1715|work=boe.es|access-date=23 August 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Penal/lo11-1999.html#a2|title=Ley Orgánica 11/1999, de 30 de abril, de modificación del Título VIII del Libro II del Código Penal, aprobado por Ley Orgánica 10/1995, de 23 de noviembre.|work=Noticias Jurídicas|access-date=29 June 2015}}</ref> and in 2015 it was raised to 16.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2015/03/31/pdfs/BOE-A-2015-3439.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2015/03/31/pdfs/BOE-A-2015-3439.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Disposición 3439 del BOE núm|date=31 March 2015|access-date=25 August 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiointereconomia.com/2015/07/01/las-20-claves-del-nuevo-codigo-penal/|title=Las 20 claves del nuevo Código Penal|work=radiointereconomia.com|access-date=23 August 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924084242/http://www.radiointereconomia.com/2015/07/01/las-20-claves-del-nuevo-codigo-penal/|archive-date=24 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.es/videos-espana/20150630/entra-vigor-llamada-mordaza-4330498762001.html|title=Entra en vigor la llamada ley mordaza|work=ABC|date=30 June 2015|access-date=23 August 2015}}</ref>