legal age for sexual consent

[breezzy]

I know a 16 yr old dating a 19 yr old. Can the 16 yr old's mother press charges?

[BPNJ]

Why do you feel one of these is guilty of sexual misconduct and the other is not? They are both old enough to know better, neither of these is a child, so remove either one of these and the other will just be playing by themselves.
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The law was never meant to be used as a substitute for good parenting, it is instead meant to be used encase of bad parenting.
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But to answer your "legal" and not moral or parenting question, search these: § 5-14-103, § 5-14-127

[dispatcher1982]

Here is what I found reading through arkansas code

5-14-102. In general.

(a) The definition of an offense that excludes conduct with a spouse shall not be construed to preclude accomplice liability of a spouse.

(b) When the criminality of conduct depends on a child's being below fourteen (14) years of age and the actor is twenty (20) years of age or older, it is no defense that the actor:

(1) Did not know the age of the child; or

(2) Reasonably believed the child to be fourteen (14) years of age or older.

(c) (1) When criminality of conduct depends on a child's being below fourteen (14) years of age and the actor is under twenty (20) years of age, it is an affirmative defense that the actor reasonably believed the child to be of the critical age or above.

(2) However, the actor may be guilty of the lesser offense defined by the age that the actor reasonably believed the child to be.

(d) (1) When criminality of conduct depends on a child's being below a critical age older than fourteen (14) years, it is an affirmative defense that the actor reasonably believed the child to be of the critical age or above.

(2) However, the actor may be guilty of the lesser offense defined by the age that the actor reasonably believed the child to be.

(e) When criminality of conduct depends on a victim's being incapable of consent because he or she is mentally defective or mentally incapacitated, it is an affirmative defense that the actor reasonably believed that the victim was capable of consent.

History. Acts 1975, No. 280, § 1802; 1985, No. 281, § 1; 1985, No. 870, § 4; 1985, No. 919, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-1802; Acts 2003, No. 1323, § 2.