New Hampshire Romeo and Juliet Law: Age of Consent, Close-in-Age Rules, and Penalties

Overview

New Hampshire contains one of the sharpest internal asymmetries in American law on this subject, and it runs in a direction that startles people.

For sexual contact with a person aged 13 to 15, New Hampshire requires the actor to be five or more years older. That's a wide allowance — matching Hawaii, Maine, and Illinois at the generous end of the national range.

For sexual penetration with a person in the same age band, New Hampshire requires no age gap at all. Felonious sexual assault under RSA 632-A:3 reaches sexual penetration with a person 13 to 15 on the age element alone. A sixteen-year-old and a fifteen-year-old fall within it on identical terms as a fifty-year-old.

So the less serious conduct carries the more demanding element, and the more serious conduct carries none. Michigan has the same inversion; New Hampshire's version is starker because its contact allowance is so wide.

The practical consequence: a New Hampshire couple can be comfortably outside the sexual assault provision for one form of conduct and squarely inside a Class B felony for another, on the same facts and the same ages.

1. Does New Hampshire Have a Romeo and Juliet Law?

Partly — and the part matters enormously. A five-year gap requirement applies to sexual contact with a person aged 13 to 15 under RSA 632-A:4, which is a wide allowance matching Hawaii, Maine, and Illinois at the generous end of the national range. But it does not apply to sexual penetration. Felonious sexual assault under RSA 632-A:3 reaches sexual penetration with a person 13 to 15 on the age element alone, with no gap requirement, so a sixteen-year-old and a fifteen-year-old fall within it on identical terms as a fifty-year-old. The less serious conduct carries the more demanding element and the more serious conduct carries none — the same inversion Michigan has, but starker here because New Hampshire's contact allowance is so wide.

2. Age of Consent in New Hampshire

Sixteen. A person 16 or older can generally consent to sexual activity in New Hampshire, subject to the position-of-authority provisions. The structure runs as follows. Aggravated felonious sexual assault (RSA 632-A:2) is the most serious tier, reaching sexual penetration where the victim is under 13, along with circumstances involving force, coercion, incapacity, and defined relationships of authority and trust — a Class A felony. Felonious sexual assault (RSA 632-A:3) covers sexual penetration where the victim is 13, 14, or 15, with no gap requirement — a Class B felony; this provision also reaches certain other circumstances including sexual contact with a person under 13. Sexual assault (RSA 632-A:4) covers sexual contact where the victim is 13 to 15 and the actor is 5 or more years older, and sexual penetration where the victim is 16 or 17 and the actor holds a position of authority — graded as a misdemeanor or Class B felony depending on the circumstances.

3. Close-in-Age Exception Explained

The lesson worth carrying is that in New Hampshire the nature of the conduct changes the legal test entirely. A couple who correctly understand the five-year rule may have no idea it doesn't apply to the conduct they are actually being investigated for. For contact, a seventeen-year-old and a fifteen-year-old are two years apart, below the five-year threshold, and outside RSA 632-A:4 on that element. For penetration on exactly the same facts, RSA 632-A:3 applies with no gap element at all and Class B felony exposure. The boundary within the contact provision also runs against the defendant: the statute reaches an actor “five or more years older,” so exactly five years is inside.

4. Legal Age Gap Rules

One threshold, applying to one form of conduct and one age band: five or more years older, for sexual contact with a person aged 13, 14, or 15. Below 13 the aggravated provision applies with no allowance. Above 15, the age-based provisions fall away at 16 — except that RSA 632-A:4 continues to reach sexual penetration with a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old where the actor holds a position of authority, and no gap saves an authority case. For sexual penetration with a 13- to 15-year-old there is no gap threshold to measure at all.

Positions of Authority

New Hampshire reaches sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds through provisions addressing actors who hold a position of authority over the younger person and use that authority to coerce submission, along with defined therapeutic, custodial, and institutional relationships appearing in the aggravated provision.

As always, no age gap saves an authority case. A young teacher, coach, or counselor barely older than a student is within the statute's reach.

Mistake of Age

New Hampshire's treatment is narrow and offense-specific. Do not assume that a reasonable belief about the other person's age operates as a general defense. Where any argument exists, it belongs with counsel and is built from evidence rather than offered to an investigator.

Marriage

New Hampshire raised its minimum marriage age, moving away from the notably low thresholds it had historically permitted with judicial approval. Older material describing New Hampshire as allowing marriage at 13 or 14 reflects a regime the legislature has since replaced.

5. What Is Not Protected?

The five-year rule covers one form of conduct in one age band. Everything else sits outside it.

• Sexual penetration. This is the central point of the page. RSA 632-A:3 contains no gap element.
• Anyone under 13. The aggravated provision applies with no allowance.
• Positions of authority. These reach sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds.
• Explicit images. New Hampshire's child sexual abuse images provisions use 18 as the threshold with no close-in-age accommodation. Two New Hampshire sixteen-year-olds — both at the age of consent — face felony exposure for producing or exchanging images.
• Force, coercion, or incapacity. The aggravated provision reaches these circumstances independently of age.
• Conduct in another state. New Hampshire borders Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts. Vermont uses 16 with a three-year provision; Maine uses 16 with a five-year rule and an age-18 actor floor; Massachusetts has no close-in-age exemption at all and carries life exposure for statutory rape. The Boston commuter belt extends well into southern New Hampshire, and the difference across that line is dramatic — a relationship that falls outside RSA 632-A:4's five-year threshold in Nashua is subject to a life-maximum statute with no exemption twenty minutes south. Using a phone or the internet to arrange a meeting can trigger 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) and its ten-year mandatory minimum.

6. Examples

7. Possible Penalties

Aggravated felonious sexual assault is a Class A felony with extended term provisions available in defined circumstances, reaching substantially longer sentences for the most serious conduct. Felonious sexual assault is a Class B felony. Sexual assault under RSA 632-A:4 is graded as a misdemeanor or a Class B felony depending on the circumstances. New Hampshire's maximums look modest compared with states like Montana or Nebraska, but New Hampshire courts routinely impose consecutive sentences on multiple counts, which changes the arithmetic considerably in cases involving repeated conduct.

8. Sex Offender Registration Risk

New Hampshire registers under RSA 651-B, using tiers with registration periods that run for a term of years or for life depending on the offense. New Hampshire's registry has been meaningfully reshaped by state constitutional litigation. The New Hampshire Supreme Court has held that imposing lifetime registration with no mechanism for review raises constitutional problems, and that ruling prompted the creation of a petition process allowing certain registrants to seek relief from the obligation after a qualifying period and on a showing that they no longer pose a risk. Two consequences follow: relief exists in New Hampshire that does not exist in states like Illinois, and it is worth pursuing; and material published before that litigation is unreliable, particularly anything describing New Hampshire registration as irrevocably lifetime. New Hampshire also distinguishes between offenders whose information is publicly available and those whose registration is maintained for law enforcement purposes only, which is a further reason the specific offense of conviction carries weight well beyond the sentence.

Statutes of Limitation

New Hampshire has extended limitation periods substantially for sexual offenses involving minors, in several instances allowing prosecution well into the victim's adulthood, and has eliminated the period for certain serious offenses. Which rule applies depends on the offense and on when the conduct occurred.

9. Official Statute Sources

Primary New Hampshire statutes and official government resources cited in this guide. Look each citation up on your state legislature's official website for the current text:

• New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated — Aggravated felonious sexual assault
  N.H. RSA 632-A:2
• New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated — Felonious sexual assault
  N.H. RSA 632-A:3
• New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated — Sexual assault
  N.H. RSA 632-A:4
• New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated — Registration of criminal offenders
  N.H. RSA 651-B
• New Hampshire General Court — Official New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated
  New Hampshire General Court
• U.S. Department of Justice — Citizen's Guide to U.S. Federal Law on the Sexual Abuse of Minors
  U.S. Dept. of Justice, Criminal Division

10. When to Talk to a Lawyer

Before speaking with police or Division for Children, Youth and Families investigators, including in conversations framed as routine. New Hampshire presents a particular hazard worth naming plainly. People who learn about the five-year rule frequently assume it governs their situation generally. It does not — it governs sexual contact only. A person who volunteers a description of conduct to an investigator on the strength of that assumption can move the case from a provision that doesn't reach them to a Class B felony that does. The second thing to raise is the registration petition process. Because New Hampshire now provides a relief route that many states lack, it is worth understanding what disposition would preserve eligibility for it before any plea is entered.