Male homosexual acts were illegal in Scotland until 1980, when they were decriminalised by section 80 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, which set the age of consent at 21. The Criminal Law (Codification) (Scotland) Act 1995 lowered the age of consent to 18 and the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 further reduced the age of consent to 16. Male rape has been recognised by the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 (in force since 1 December 2010, with the exception of sections 52 and 53) as well as a complete overhaul of the sexual offences legislation. [154] The age of consent in Bulgaria is 14 years, in accordance with Articles 149 and 151(1). However, Article 151(2) contains a provision for persons over the age of 14 who „do not understand the characteristics or meaning of the document”: the age of consent in Sweden is 15, as provided for in Chapter 6 (On sexual crimes) of the Swedish Criminal Code. The age of fifteen years is mentioned several times, for example in article 4, which states: „Any person who has sexual intercourse with a child under fifteen years of age or engages in another sexual act with such a child which, having regard to the nature of the offence and the circumstances, is generally comparable to sexual intercourse, for raping a child to imprisonment of at least two years, shall not be sentenced to a maximum sentence of six years. The age of consent in the United States varies from state to state between 16 and 18 years. Sexual activity with a partner who is under the legal age in that jurisdiction is considered legal rape. In some jurisdictions, sexual activity between underage participants may also be considered legal rape. The age of sexual consent in the Czech Republic is 15 years. Northern Cyprus has an age of consent of 16 years, as stipulated in the Criminal Code (Ceza Yasası, arts.

153 and 154). The age of consent in Germany is 14. Prosecution for legal rape (or local equivalent) can result in a prison sentence of 6 months to 10 years. The age of consent in Germany is 14 if both partners are under 18. Sexual acts with a person under the age of 18 are punishable if the adult is an authority figure over the minor in education, education, care or employment. The age of consent in Malta is 16. [72] Sexual activity – usually by persons over the age of 16 – with persons between the ages of 12 and 16 may be considered desecration of minors by obscene acts or corruption of a minor, which may result in conviction at the discretion of the prosecution and the courts, depending on the circumstances. The age of consent in Kosovo is 16. Article 228 of the Criminal Code states: „The term `consent` means the voluntary consent of a person who has attained the age of sixteen years to participate in the sexual act in question”, and article 230 provides that 1. Anyone who engages another person in a sexual act without his consent shall be punished with imprisonment for two (2) to ten (10) years.

[64] From 1977 to 1994, sexual acts between men of all ages were a criminal offense in Serbia, although the law was never enforced. Then, in 1994, the age of consent was only 18 for intercourse between men; Any man who performs sexual acts with another man is punished with up to 1 year in prison, 16 years for all other sexual behavior. Since 2006, an equal age of consent has entered into force, regardless of sexual orientation or gender – this is regulated by Article 110 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, which stipulates that „obscene acts” between an adult male and a man under the age of 16 are punishable by imprisonment for 1 to 8 years. There is no specific reference to „lewd acts” between two women of the same crime. Until 1998, homosexual acts between men were totally prohibited under Article 171 (1929). In 1989, Alecos Modinos, president of the Cypriot gay liberation movement, brought a case before the European Court of Human Rights. In 1993, the Court ruled that the prohibition of homosexual acts constituted a violation of Article 8. In January 1995, the Cypriot Government submitted a bill to the Cypriot Parliament which would have lifted the ban. Strong resistance from the Orthodox Church led to the bill being halted when it was referred to Parliament`s Legal Affairs Committee. The European Commission reiterated its warning that Cyprus must follow the Court`s ruling.

In May 1997, a government measure to lift the ban again failed due to strong opposition. In April 1998, the Council of Europe set 29 May 1998 as the deadline for compliance with the obligations, and on 21 May 1998 the House of Representatives voted 36 to 8 in favour of legalising homosexual acts. However, it was set at 18, while heterosexual acts remained at 16. The Japanese Penal Code was introduced in 1907 and sets the age of consent at 13. Any sexual activity with a person under the age of 13 is considered legal rape and can carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years. However, Chapter 34 of the Child Protection Act also prohibits „fornication” with children (defined as persons under the age of 18). According to Article 305 of the South Korean Penal Code, the age of consent in South Korea is 20. This is one of the oldest ages of consent in the world. Previously, the age of consent in South Korea was 13, one of the lowest in the world. However, there were significant demands at that age that led to several complicated cases that sometimes seem to contradict each other. Note: This age is measured in the international age, which starts at zero on the birthday, as opposed to the Korean age which counts time in the womb and adds a year on January 1, so it is usually 1-2 years older than the international age. There is no age of consent in Pakistan.

All sexual activity in Pakistan is illegal until marriage. The minimum age of marriage is 18 for men and 16 for women. In some cases, women are allowed to marry at the age of 14. Once two people are married, their age is no longer an issue and sex is legal. Consensual same-sex relations are criminalized in Pakistan. Before 2013, the legal age of consent in Croatia was 14. Homosexual acts were illegal until 1977, when Croatia, then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, amended its penal code. The age of consent was changed in 1998. In early 2018, Parliament voted in favour of the „Gender and Domestic Violence Act 2018”, which came into force on 14 May 2018. The main objective of the law is to implement the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, and it also includes amendments lowering the age of consent to 16. [72] The age of consent in Russia is 16.

However, as in many countries, the age of consent in Russia has changed several times. The Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) stipulates that consent takes place at the time when „sexual maturity” has been reached. It was set at 16 years in 1996 when the Russian Criminal Code was introduced, lowered to 14 years in 1998 and postponed to 16 years in 2003. In Russia, there is no law on age limits. However, articles 134 and 135 of the Criminal Code, which set out the conditions for legal rape, stipulate that the perpetrator must be at least 18 years of age to be legally responsible, creating roughly the same protection as an age clause. The interpretation of the law is situational and left to the discretion of the prosecutor`s office and the courts, on the basis of relevant factors that can be taken into account in deciding whether the minor has actually been „desecrated”. For example, in 2008, two brothers, aged 19 and 20, were found not guilty of desecrating a girl, then 16 (until 2018, the age of consent was 18). Their sexual encounters were consensual, and it was clear that the girl had had several previous sexual affairs with several teenagers. [78] [79] In 2007, a 30-year-old man was convicted of desecrating a then 14-year-old boy.