Louisiana Age of Consent: Carnal Knowledge Charges and Penalties

The Louisiana age of consent is 17. An adult who has consensual sexual intercourse with someone aged 13 to 16 can be charged with either felony or misdemeanor carnal knowledge of a juvenile, depending on how many years separate the two people. If the younger person is under 13, consent is legally impossible and the charge is first degree rape.¹

How the Age Gap Determines the Charge

Louisiana doesn’t ask only whether the younger person was under 17. It also looks at the difference in age between the two people. That gap decides whether prosecutors file no charge, a misdemeanor, or a felony.

For consensual intercourse where the older person is at least 17 and the younger person is 13 to 16:

Age gap of two years or less: neither carnal knowledge statute applies. An 18-year-old with a 16-year-old falls outside both.
Age gap of more than two years but less than four years: misdemeanor carnal knowledge of a juvenile.²
Age gap of four years or more: felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile.³

The two-year buffer is the closest Louisiana comes to a formal close-in-age exemption. It only covers consensual intercourse. Force, incapacitation, and non-intercourse sexual acts fall under other statutes that don’t share this buffer.

Felony Carnal Knowledge of a Juvenile

Felony carnal knowledge applies when someone 17 or older has consensual sexual intercourse with a person at least 13 but under 17, and the age difference is four years or more.³ A 21-year-old with a 16-year-old is the textbook example: the five-year gap clears the four-year line.

The penalty is up to ten years in prison, with or without hard labor, a fine of up to $5,000, or both. A felony carnal knowledge conviction cannot be set aside and the prosecution cannot be dismissed under Louisiana’s deferred sentencing provisions, so the conviction is permanent on the person’s record.³

A second or later misdemeanor carnal knowledge conviction is automatically bumped up to a felony. So is a first misdemeanor if the person already has a conviction for any offense that requires sex offender registration.³

Misdemeanor Carnal Knowledge of a Juvenile

When the older person is 17 or older, the younger person is 13 to 16, and the age difference is more than two but less than four years, the offense drops to a misdemeanor.² A 19-year-old with a 16-year-old fits, since the gap is three years.

Penalties top out at six months in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. The misdemeanor version can be set aside and the prosecution dismissed under the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the statute explicitly exempts the person from sex offender registration and community notification requirements.² That exemption is significant, because registration carries its own long chain of restrictions on housing and employment.

If the Younger Person Is Under 13

The carnal knowledge tiers stop applying when the younger person is under 13. Sexual intercourse with a child under 13 is prosecuted as first degree rape regardless of any apparent consent, and the offender’s ignorance of the child’s age is not a defense.¹ First degree rape is one of the most severely punished offenses in Louisiana law.

Other Offenses That Reach Where Carnal Knowledge Doesn’t

The carnal knowledge statutes cover consensual intercourse. Other statutes cover sexual conduct with minors that doesn’t involve intercourse, or that involves smaller age gaps, and several carry far harsher penalties.

Sexual Battery

Sexual battery involving a victim under 15 who is at least three years younger than the offender can result in up to ten years of imprisonment. When the victim is under 13 and the offender is 17 or older, the sentence range is 25 to 99 years at hard labor, with at least 25 years served before parole eligibility, plus lifetime electronic monitoring after release.⁴ Ignorance of the victim’s age is not a defense.

Indecent Behavior With Juveniles

Any sexually motivated act committed on or in the presence of a child under 17, where the offender is more than two years older, can be charged as indecent behavior with juveniles. The statute also covers sending sexually explicit communications to someone the offender believes to be under 17, and it targets grooming when the offender is at least four years older than the child.⁵

The base penalty is up to seven years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. When the victim is under 13 and the offender is 17 or older, the sentence range is two to 25 years at hard labor, with at least two years served before parole eligibility.⁵

Aggravated Crime Against Nature

Certain sexual acts with a victim under 17, where the offender is at least three years older, are prosecuted as aggravated crime against nature, carrying three to fifteen years at hard labor without probation or parole.⁶ When the offense involves a family member under 18, the penalty is five to twenty years and a fine of up to $50,000. If the family-member victim is under 13 and the offender is 17 or older, the sentence is 25 to 99 years.

Someone whose conduct escapes carnal knowledge because the age gap is small can still be charged under one of these statutes if the conduct fits. The two-year buffer in the carnal knowledge law doesn’t carry over.

“I Didn’t Know Their Age” Is Not a Defense

One of the most persistent myths is that a reasonable belief the minor was old enough will defeat the charge. Louisiana rejects it. Both carnal knowledge statutes contain identical language: lack of knowledge of the juvenile’s age is not a defense.³² The same bar applies to indecent behavior with juveniles and sexual battery.

A fake ID doesn’t help. Meeting in a 21-and-over venue doesn’t help. Even seeing an apparently legitimate driver’s license that showed an adult age doesn’t help. If the person turns out to be 16, the older party can still be convicted. Louisiana treats these offenses as strict liability with respect to age, and the prosecution never has to prove the accused knew how old the minor actually was.

Defenses that do have weight tend to challenge whether intercourse occurred, whether the identification of the accused is reliable, or whether the state’s evidence proves the elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Marriage is a complete defense: both carnal knowledge statutes apply only when the victim is “not the spouse of the offender.”³

Sex Offender Registration

Whether a conviction triggers sex offender registration depends heavily on which statute the person is convicted under. Misdemeanor carnal knowledge is expressly exempt from all registration and notification requirements.²

Felony carnal knowledge triggers registration, with one narrow escape valve. If the victim was at least 13 and the offender was no more than four years older at the time of the offense, the district attorney and the offender can jointly move the court to waive registration. The court may grant the waiver only on clear and convincing evidence of the parties’ ages.⁷ The waiver is only available at the very bottom of the felony range, and it requires the prosecutor’s agreement.

For every other felony carnal knowledge conviction, registration is mandatory. No court can waive or suspend it, and any judicial order that tries is automatically void.⁷ Registrants must appear in person at the sheriff’s office in their parish of residence and in any parish where they work or attend school, and must keep all their information current. Failure to comply is itself a separate crime.

Federal law also bars anyone subject to a lifetime sex offender registration requirement from living in federally assisted housing, including public housing and Section 8 units. Housing agencies must run criminal background checks and verify registration status with state and local agencies.⁸ The applicant can dispute the accuracy of the underlying information, but the prohibition itself is absolute for lifetime registrants.

1
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14-42 – First Degree Rape
2
Justia Law. Louisiana Code RS 14-80.1 – Misdemeanor Carnal Knowledge of a Juvenile
3
Justia Law. Louisiana Code RS 14-80 – Felony Carnal Knowledge of a Juvenile
4
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14-43.1 – Sexual Battery
5
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14-81 – Indecent Behavior With Juveniles
6
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14-89.1 – Aggravated Crime Against Nature
7
Justia Law. Louisiana Code RS 15-542 – Registration of Sex Offenders and Child Predators
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 13663 – Ineligibility of Dangerous Sex Offenders for Admission to Public Housing