Do Statutory Rape Laws Affect the Incidence of Teenage Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases?

While states have passed statutory rape laws for a variety of reasons, many of them have viewed these laws, in part, as a mechanism to reduce rates of teenage pregnancy. This project will explore whether statutory rape laws, and the way in which they are enforced, contribute to a reduction in both teenage pregnancy rates and rates of various sexually transmitted diseases. The researchers will evaluate the general impact of statutory rape laws while appropriately accounting for the different ways in which states structure their statutory rape provisions.