Consent Laws
Georgia

The State of Georgia does not define consent in reference to sexual activity.

The offense of rape occurs when it is against “a female forcibly and against her will.”  Georgia Code § 16-6-1.

The phrase “against her will” means without consent. Wightman v. State, 289 Ga.App. 225, 656 S.E.2d 563 (2008).

No.

16 years old. Georgia Code § 16-6-3(a).

No, but it can impact the punishment. The offense of statutory rape is mitigated from a felony to a misdemeanor where the victim is at least 14 but less than 16 years of age and the person convicted of statutory rape is 18 years of age or younger and is no more than four years older than the victim. Georgia Code § 16-6-3(c).

No.

Yes, a victim who has a developmental disability or lacks the mental capacity to make ordinary judgments on his or her own is unable to give consent to sexual acts. Baise v. The State, 502 S.E.2d 492, 232 Ga. App. 556 (1998).

Yes, for a victim who is physically or mentally incompetent of knowingly and intelligently giving consent to sexual acts, the requirement of force is found in what is called constructive force. Durr v. State, 493 S.E.2d 210 (1997), 229 Ga. App. 103 (1997).

Yes, a victim whose will is temporarily lost due to unconsciousness arising from use of drugs or other cause, or sleep is unable to consent to sexual activity. Gore v. State, 119 Ga. 418 (1904); Evans v. State, 67 Ga. App. 631 (1942).

Yes, a victim whose will is temporarily lost from intoxication, arising from use of drugs or other cause, is unable to consent to sexual activity. Gore v. State, 119 Ga. 418 (1904); Evans v. State, 67 Ga. App. 631 (1942).

Yes.

• An employee or agent engages in improper sexual contact in the first degree if that employee or agent engages in sexually explicit conduct with a person they knew or reasonably should have known is contemporaneously:
• enrolled as a student at a school of which he or she is an employee or agent;
• under probation, parole, a program or within a facility as a condition of probation or parole, accountability court, or pretrial diversion supervision of the office or court of which he or she is an employee or agent;
• being detained by or is in the custody of any law enforcement agency of which he or she is an employee or agent;
• patient in or at a hospital of which he or she is an employee or agent;
• in the custody of a correctional facility, juvenile detention facility, facility providing services to a person with a disability, or a facility providing child welfare and youth services of which he or she is an employee or agent;
• the subject of such employee or agent’s actual or purported psychotherapy treatment or counseling; or
• admitted for care at a sensitive care facility of which he or she is an employee or agent. Georgia Code § 16-6-5.1(b).

• In addition, a person commits the offense of improper sexual contact when a person in a “position of trust” engages in sexually explicit conduct with a minor for whom he or she has entered into an agreement entrusting him or her with the responsibility of education and supervision of such minor. Georgia Code §§ 16-6-5.1(b.2) & (c.2). “Person in a position of trust” means an individual with whom a parent, guardian, or other person standing in loco parentis of a minor has entered into an agreement entrusting such individual with the responsibility of education and supervision of such minor. Georgia Code § 16-6-5.1(a)(5.1)

Consent is not a defense to offenses under section 16-6-5.1.

Yes, consent is a defense to claims of:

• rape of a female more than ten years of age (although if the female is at least 10 but less than less than 16 years of age, it is considered statutory rape, to which consent is not a defense (see below));
• sexual battery; and
• aggravated sexual battery. Georgia Code §§ 16-6-1(a), 16-6-22.1(b), 16-6-22.2(b).

Consent is not a defense to claims of statutory rape under Georgia Code § 16-6-3 or claims of improper sexual conduct (relating to supervisory or disciplinary relationships or “positions of trust” as described above) under Georgia Code § 16-6-5.1.

A person commits the offense of statutory rape when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with any person under the age of 16 years and not his or her spouse, provided that no conviction shall be had for this offense on the unsupported testimony of the victim. 

If the victim is at least 14 but less than 16 years of age and the person convicted of statutory rape is 18 years of age or younger and is no more than four years older than the victim, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Georgia Code § 16-6-3.

No.  Defendant’s voluntary intoxication does not give rise to a defense in prosecution for rape, assault and battery absent evidence that defendant had inability to distinguish between right and wrong by virtue of mental impairment.  Height v. State, 214 Ga.App. 570, 448 S.E.2d 726 (Georgia 1994).