The age of consent in New Jersey.
Sixteen - with a four-year close-in-age allowance for the thirteen-to-fifteen band, and a two-tier supervision rule that moves the line to eighteen when the older party holds authority over the younger.
The New Jersey baseline.
The age of consent in New Jersey is sixteen. Below it, N.J.S.A. 2C:14-2 does the work: sexual assault covers acts with a victim thirteen to fifteen where the actor is at least four years older - a second-degree crime, five to ten years, subject to the No Early Release Act’s 85% parole bar. Below thirteen, aggravated sexual assault is a first-degree crime carrying ten to twenty years. And where the actor has supervisory or disciplinary power - teacher, coach, guardian, household authority - the consent age effectively rises to eighteen, with no gap allowance at all.
The four-year allowance.
For the thirteen-to-fifteen band, New Jersey’s close-in-age protection is definitional: the sexual assault statute requires a four-year age difference, so peers inside that distance are outside the crime. Sixteen and thirteen, seventeen and fourteen, eighteen and fifteen - lawful pairings under the statute, provided consent is real and no authority relationship exists. At exactly four years or more, the second-degree charge attaches - and with it Megan’s Law registration and parole supervision for life exposure. The arithmetic is date-of-birth exact, and it is the first thing competent defense counsel audits in the discovery.
The overlays that catch people.
Three New Jersey-specific traps. Endangering the welfare of a child - 2C:24-4 - reaches conduct the assault statutes miss, and prosecutors charge it alongside everything. Images are a separate universe: explicit photos of anyone under eighteen are child pornography federally and under state law, with teenagers’ own phones supplying the evidence. And Megan’s Law plus community supervision for life attach to convictions the public assumes are minor - which is why the plea decision in these cases is a registry decision first and a sentencing decision second.
Charged in New Jersey.
This firm tries cases across the river regularly - Joseph Alter practices in the New Jersey state and federal courts, and in March 2025 won a full acquittal, not guilty on all counts, in a New Jersey jury trial. Age documentation, phone forensics, authority-relationship analysis, registry-first negotiation - the consultation is free, and earlier is stronger.
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