What US 18 U.S.C. § 2243 - Sexual Abuse of a Minor, Ward, or by Federal Law Enforcement Officer requires
18 U.S.C. § 2243 criminalises three categories of sexual abuse in federal jurisdiction: (a) sexual abuse of a minor between 12 and 16 years old where the offender is at least 4 years older - penalty up to 15 years; (b) sexual abuse of a ward in official detention where the offender has custodial authority - penalty up to 15 years; (c) sexual conduct between federal law enforcement officers and persons under arrest, supervision, in detention, or in federal custody, added by Public Law 117-103 (effective 2022) - penalty up to 15 years. Reasonable belief that the minor had attained the age of 16 is the only affirmative defence under subsection (d) (the historical marriage defence was repealed in 2022). Section 2243 fills the gap between aggravated abuse (§ 2241) and statutory minors below 12 (§ 2241(c)) for the 12-15 age cohort.
Pillar: Adult Industry & Sexual Content Compliance · Authority: United States Congress (codified in Title 18 of the United States Code) · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2243
SHA-256 integrity: 98834b161483d70b73327be913fd87986b962ee54938d8e6e628363b5ab9c596
Primary Citations — 10 traced to source
- 18 U.S.C. § 2243 (Sexual abuse of a minor, ward, or by a Federal law enforcement officer) subsection (a): 'Whoever, in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or in a Federal prison, or in any prison, institution, or facility in which persons are held in custody by direction of or pursuant to a contract or agreement with the head of any Federal department or agency, knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who (1) has attained the age of 12 years but has not attained the age of 16 years; and (2) is at least four years younger than the person so engaging; or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both.' (law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2243)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2243(b): sexual abuse of a ward - knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who is in official detention and under custodial, supervisory, or disciplinary authority - up to 15 years.
+ 8 more citations (full bibliography, deterministic workflow, actionable schema and crosswalks) included in the vault unlock — $0.01 via Skyfire / L402 / Direct Base USDC.
Access
- Discovery (free): /api/v1/nodes/us-18-usc-2243-sexual-abuse-of-minor-or-ward.json — 6-field metadata
- Vault (full node): /api/v1/vault/nodes/us-18-usc-2243-sexual-abuse-of-minor-or-ward.json — full 13-key payload, $0.01 USDC (L402/Skyfire/Direct Base)
- Canonical URL: https://bidda.com/intelligence/us-18-usc-2243-sexual-abuse-of-minor-or-ward
- Back to registry: Browse all 10,090 compliance nodes