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

Overview

Texas's close-in-age defense is well known and routinely described incompletely.

Under Texas Penal Code § 22.011(e), it is an affirmative defense to sexual assault of a child that the actor was not more than three years older than the victim. But the statute attaches conditions that most summaries omit: the victim must have been 14 years of age or older; the actor must not have been required to register as a sex offender at the time; and the conduct must not have involved the aggravating circumstances that would elevate the offense. A parallel defense appears in § 21.11, indecency with a child.

Texas also has a marriage defense — that the actor was the spouse of the child at the time — which retains some practical relevance given Texas's marriage rules.

Where Texas is genuinely distinctive is elsewhere. Section 21.12, improper relationship between educator and student, reaches an employee of a primary or secondary school who engages in sexual conduct with a person enrolled at that school — and the provision is not limited to minors. An eighteen- or nineteen-year-old senior is covered. Very few states extend that far, and it catches young teachers, aides, and coaches who assume the age of consent settles the question.

1. Does Texas Have a Romeo and Juliet Law?

Yes, as an affirmative defense under § 22.011(e), with a parallel provision in § 21.11 for indecency with a child. It requires that the actor was not more than three years older than the victim — but it also attaches three conditions that most summaries leave out: the victim must have been 14 years of age or older, the actor must not have been required to register as a sex offender at the time, and the conduct must not have involved the aggravating circumstances that would elevate the offense. Because it is an affirmative defense, the burden of raising and proving it sits with the defendant. It does not prevent arrest, does not prevent indictment, and does not prevent a case from reaching a jury — it is established in court with evidence assembled by counsel.

2. Age of Consent in Texas

Seventeen. A person 17 or older can generally consent to sexual activity in Texas, subject to § 21.12 and other relationship provisions. The structure runs as follows. Sexual assault of a child (§ 22.011(a)(2)) covers sexual conduct with a child under 17 — a second degree felony, 2 to 20 years. Aggravated sexual assault of a child (§ 22.021) applies where the victim is under 14, along with circumstances involving weapons, serious injury, or multiple actors — a first degree felony, with mandatory minimums that rise sharply where the victim is under 6, or under 14 with aggravating circumstances. Indecency with a child (§ 21.11) covers sexual contact or exposure involving a child under 17 — second or third degree felony depending on the conduct, and carrying the same three-year defense. Continuous sexual abuse of a young child (§ 21.02) covers two or more acts over a period of 30 days or more against a child under 14 — 25 years to life, with no parole eligibility. Improper relationship between educator and student (§ 21.12) is a second degree felony reaching school employees and enrolled students.

3. Close-in-Age Exception Explained

The boundary runs in the defendant's favour: “not more than three years older” includes exactly three years, so a nineteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old are within the defense — unlike Oregon, where the equivalent edge cuts the other way. But the conditions matter as much as the arithmetic. The victim must have been 14 or older, so a sixteen-year-old and a thirteen-year-old cannot reach the defense at all. And the registration condition is absolute: an actor already required to register as a sex offender loses the defense entirely, however small the gap. That last condition is the one most often left out of summaries.

4. Legal Age Gap Rules

Three years, measured against a victim 14 or older, with the actor not already a registered sex offender. Below 14 the floor is not met and aggravated sexual assault territory begins. Above 17 the age-based provisions fall away — but § 21.12 continues to reach enrolled students of any age, so the arithmetic resolves nothing where a school employment relationship exists. Because the defense is affirmative rather than an element, establishing the gap is the defendant's job, and nothing about it happens automatically.

The Educator–Student Statute

Section 21.12 deserves its own treatment because its reach is genuinely unusual.

It applies to an employee of a public or private primary or secondary school who engages in sexual contact or intercourse with a person enrolled at that school — or, in defined circumstances, at another school in the same district. It is a second degree felony.

The critical feature: the statute is not limited to minors. A student who has turned 18 remains a student. So conduct that would be entirely lawful between two adults becomes a second degree felony because of where one of them works and where the other is enrolled.

The statute reaches teachers, aides, coaches, counselors, librarians, bus drivers, cafeteria staff, and volunteers, and Texas has expanded and tightened it repeatedly, including provisions requiring reporting by administrators and imposing consequences on districts that fail to report.

For anyone employed by a Texas school, this provision — not the age of consent, and not the three-year defense — is the operative rule.

Mistake of Age

Texas does not provide a general reasonable-belief defense for these offenses. The three-year defense turns on the actual age difference, not on what the defendant believed. Arguing that the other person appeared or claimed to be older does not satisfy § 22.011(e).

Marriage

Texas raised its minimum marriage age in 2017, requiring emancipation for anyone under 18 to marry. The spousal defense in the Penal Code therefore has narrower application than it once did, though it has not been eliminated.

5. What Is Not Protected?

The three-year defense is narrow, conditional, and easily displaced.

• Section 21.12. The educator–student provision has no age-gap defense and reaches enrolled students of any age.
• Anyone under 14. The defense's floor is not met, and aggravated sexual assault applies.
• Actors already required to register. An absolute disqualifier, however small the gap.
• Explicit images. Texas's possession or promotion of child pornography provisions use 18 as the threshold. Texas has enacted a graduated provision addressing electronic transmission of certain visual material depicting a minor by minors, which offers narrow relief for peer-to-peer conduct between minors — but it does not extend once one party turns 18. Two Texas seventeen-year-olds are at the age of consent for physical conduct and still exposed on images.
• Online solicitation of a minor (§ 33.021). A separate offense reaching electronic communication, which Texas has amended repeatedly following constitutional challenges. It operates independently of the three-year defense.
• Conduct in another state or in Mexico. Texas borders New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and shares a long international border with Mexico. Oklahoma's rape statute has no gap element at all; Louisiana uses graduated bands; New Mexico stacks an 18 floor with a four-year gap. Travel across the international border for sexual activity with a minor can trigger 18 U.S.C. § 2423, which reaches foreign as well as interstate travel, and electronic communication can trigger 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) with its ten-year mandatory minimum.

6. Examples

7. Possible Penalties

Several of these are 3g offenses under Texas law, requiring service of half the sentence before parole eligibility, with no good-conduct-time credit toward eligibility. Continuous sexual abuse under § 21.02 carries no parole eligibility at all. Whether a charge carries the 3g designation should be confirmed directly — it substantially changes what a given number of years means.

8. Sex Offender Registration Risk

Texas registers under Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, with obligations running for ten years after discharge or for life depending on the offense. Texas provides two routes that matter for close-in-age cases. Exemption for certain young adults (Art. 62.301): a court may exempt a person from registration where the offense involved a victim of at least a specified age, the actor was within a specified number of years older, and defined conditions are met — a judicial determination requiring a motion and a hearing, not automatic, and it must be sought. Deregistration (Art. 62.404): Texas permits certain registrants to seek early termination where the offense requires registration under Texas law but not under the federal minimum standards, following an evaluation by a council-approved expert and a court order. Both routes are underused, largely because people do not know they exist. Anyone with a Texas registration obligation arising from a close-in-age case should have eligibility for both assessed.

Statutes of Limitation

Texas has eliminated the limitation period for several sexual offenses against children, including aggravated sexual assault of a child and continuous sexual abuse, and extended it substantially for others. Which rule applies depends on the offense and on when the conduct occurred.

9. Official Statute Sources

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

• Texas Penal Code — Sexual assault, including the affirmative defense at subsection (e)
  Tex. Penal Code § 22.011
• Texas Penal Code — Aggravated sexual assault
  Tex. Penal Code § 22.021
• Texas Penal Code — Indecency with a child
  Tex. Penal Code § 21.11
• Texas Penal Code — Continuous sexual abuse of a young child
  Tex. Penal Code § 21.02
• Texas Penal Code — Improper relationship between educator and student
  Tex. Penal Code § 21.12
• Texas Code of Criminal Procedure — Registration exemption; deregistration
  Tex. Code Crim. Proc. arts. 62.301, 62.404
• Texas Legislature — Official Texas Statutes
  Texas Legislature
• 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 Department of Family and Protective Services investigators, including in conversations framed as routine. Texas presents three distinct issues, and they arrive at different stages. The affirmative defense: because the burden is the defendant's, nobody establishes it for you — explaining the age difference to a detective is not raising the defense, and a statement about the timeline can undermine it. Whether § 21.12 is in play: if either party works at or attends a Texas school, this question comes before everything else, and because it reaches adults the age analysis does not resolve it. And registration exemption and deregistration: both Art. 62.301 and Art. 62.404 require motions, evidence, and hearings. Neither happens automatically, and both are frequently missed.