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

Overview

Wyoming's structure is compact and consistent, built on two variables that recur across all four degrees of sexual abuse of a minor: the victim's age band, and whether the actor has crossed a specified age floor.

For the 13-to-15 band, the offense requires the actor to be 17 or older and at least four years older than the victim. Both conditions, as in Maine and New Mexico. A sixteen-year-old fails the first; an eighteen-year-old with a fifteen-year-old fails the second.

For the 16-and-17 band, Wyoming does something narrower than most states with an age of consent of 17. The age difference alone creates no offense. What triggers liability is the actor being 18 or older and occupying a position of authority over the minor. Absent that relationship, a large age gap with a seventeen-year-old is outside the age-based provisions.

Below 13, the allowances disappear and Wyoming attaches substantial mandatory minimums, escalating sharply where the actor is 21 or older.

Wyoming is the least populous state in the country, which has a practical consequence worth naming: the criminal defense bar is small, cases attract local attention, and the same handful of prosecutors and judges handle most matters in a given county. That shapes how these cases resolve more than statutory text does.

1. Does Wyoming Have a Romeo and Juliet Law?

Functionally yes, for one band. For victims aged 13 to 15, the offense requires the actor to be 17 or older and at least four years older than the victim — both conditions, as in Maine and New Mexico, so failing either one means the provision does not reach the conduct. For the 16-and-17 band Wyoming does something narrower than most states using an age of consent of 17: the age difference alone creates no offense at all, and liability requires the actor to be 18 or older and to occupy a position of authority over the minor. Absent that relationship, even a large age gap with a seventeen-year-old is outside the age-based provisions.

2. Age of Consent in Wyoming

Seventeen. A person 17 or older can generally consent to sexual activity in Wyoming, subject to the position-of-authority provisions. The four degrees run as follows. Sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree (§ 6-2-314) includes sexual intrusion where the victim is under 13 and the actor is 17 or older, and where the victim is under 18 and the actor is a person in a position of authority; it carries substantial mandatory exposure, with enhanced minimums where the actor is 21 or older and the victim is under 13. Sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree (§ 6-2-315) covers sexual intrusion where the victim is 13 to 15 and the actor is 17 or older and at least four years older, and circumstances involving a position of authority over a 16- or 17-year-old. Sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree (§ 6-2-316) covers sexual contact, with parallel age structures and an elevated actor floor in defined branches. Sexual abuse of a minor in the fourth degree (§ 6-2-317) covers sexual contact where the victim is 13 to 15 and the actor is 17 or older and at least four years older. Enhanced penalties (§ 6-2-318) apply for repeat offenses.

3. Close-in-Age Exception Explained

Three numbers do the work: 17 for the actor floor, four years for the gap, and 21 for the enhancement below 13. Both conditions in the 13-to-15 band must be satisfied — a sixteen-year-old actor fails the floor regardless of the gap, and an eighteen-year-old with a fifteen-year-old fails the gap regardless of the floor. The boundary runs against the defendant: the statute reaches an actor “at least four years older,” so exactly four years is inside.

4. Legal Age Gap Rules

The four-year figure governs only the 13-to-15 band, and only alongside the actor floor of 17. Below 13 both allowances disappear and first degree exposure applies with mandatory minimums, escalating where the actor is 21 or older. At 16 and 17 the gap does no work at all — the only route to liability is an actor 18 or older in a position of authority, and that branch carries no gap requirement of its own.

Position of Authority

This is where Wyoming's structure has real bite, because it is the only route to liability for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds.

Wyoming defines “position of authority” by statute, reaching parents, guardians, relatives, household members, teachers, employers, custodians, youth leaders, and others who by virtue of their position have authority over a minor.

Two features matter. It reaches minors under 18, above the age of consent. And it contains no age-gap requirement — a nineteen-year-old teaching assistant and a seventeen-year-old student are within the statute despite a two-year difference, the same facts that, without the relationship, would produce no offense at all.

For anyone working with young people in Wyoming, this provision is the operative rule, and the four-year figure is irrelevant.

Mistake of Age

Wyoming does not provide a general reasonable-belief defense for these offenses. The four-year provision turns on actual ages, not on belief.

Marriage

Wyoming raised its minimum marriage age, setting a floor and requiring judicial involvement below 18. Wyoming had previously permitted marriage at younger ages with parental consent, and older material describing that regime is out of date. Confirm current requirements with counsel.

5. What Is Not Protected?

The four-year rule reaches one band under two conditions. Several categories sit outside it.

• Positions of authority. The only route to liability for 16- and 17-year-olds, and it carries no gap requirement.
• Anyone under 13. First degree exposure with mandatory minimums, escalating where the actor is 21 or older.
• Explicit images. Wyoming's sexual exploitation of children provisions use 18 as the threshold with no close-in-age accommodation, graded by conduct with per-item counting. Two Wyoming seventeen-year-olds — both at the age of consent — face felony exposure for producing or exchanging images.
• Force or incapacity. Wyoming's sexual assault provisions reach these circumstances independently of age.
• Conduct in another state. Wyoming borders Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho — six states with six different structures. Colorado permits a ten-year gap for sixteen-year-olds; Utah permits more than ten years at that band; Nebraska uses an actor floor of 19; Idaho requires three years for 16- and 17-year-olds; South Dakota uses three years for 13-to-15-year-olds; Montana places its gaps in penalty provisions with a mistake-of-age defense. Wyoming sits in the middle of the widest variation of any state's neighbors. Using a phone or the internet to arrange a meeting can trigger 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) and its ten-year mandatory minimum.
• Tribal and federal jurisdiction. The Wind River Reservation is within Wyoming, and conduct occurring in Indian country may fall under federal or tribal jurisdiction rather than state jurisdiction depending on location and the tribal status of the parties. Federal law applies its own thresholds and its own close-in-age provision, which does not track Wyoming's. This should be raised with counsel at the outset where relevant.

6. Examples

7. Possible Penalties

Wyoming attaches mandatory minimum terms to the first degree offense in defined circumstances, and § 6-2-318 provides enhanced penalties for repeat offenses that can reach life. Wyoming sentences using indeterminate minimum and maximum terms, with the minimum not exceeding 90 percent of the maximum — a structural feature that limits how wide a Wyoming sentence can be.

8. Sex Offender Registration Risk

Wyoming registers under § 7-19-301 et seq., using three tiers with registration periods of ten years, twenty-five years, and life respectively, assigned by offense. Wyoming's registry is publicly searchable for tier two and tier three registrants, with narrower disclosure at tier one, and in-person verification frequency increases with tier. Wyoming permits certain registrants to petition for relief from the registration requirement after the applicable period, subject to eligibility restrictions that exclude the most serious offenses and repeat findings, and also provides for reduction of the registration period in defined circumstances for those who maintain a clean record and complete required treatment. Because tier assignment follows from the offense of conviction, the charge negotiated at the outset determines whether registration is a decade-long obligation or a permanent one. That distinction should be confirmed in writing before any plea.

Statutes of Limitation

Wyoming has no general statute of limitations for criminal offenses, which means the passage of time provides no protection for the offenses on this page. Wyoming is among a small group of states in this position, alongside South Carolina, West Virginia, and Kentucky for felonies.

9. Official Statute Sources

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

• Wyoming Statutes — Sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree
  Wyo. Stat. § 6-2-314
• Wyoming Statutes — Sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree
  Wyo. Stat. § 6-2-315
• Wyoming Statutes — Sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree
  Wyo. Stat. § 6-2-316
• Wyoming Statutes — Sexual abuse of a minor in the fourth degree
  Wyo. Stat. § 6-2-317
• Wyoming Statutes — Enhanced penalties for repeat offenders
  Wyo. Stat. § 6-2-318
• Wyoming Statutes — Sex offender registration
  Wyo. Stat. § 7-19-301 et seq.
• Wyoming Legislature — Official Wyoming Statutes
  Wyoming 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 Services investigators, including in conversations framed as routine. Wyoming cases turn on three exact numbers — the actor's seventeenth birthday, the four-year gap, and, below 13, the actor's twenty-first. All are measured from birth records, and a couple's own description of their age difference is frequently wrong by enough to matter. Two further questions belong on the list early: whether a position of authority will be alleged, since for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds this is the whole case and whether a coaching, employment, or household relationship qualifies is often genuinely contestable; and whether jurisdiction lies with the state, a tribe, or the federal government, where the conduct occurred in Indian country. Given Wyoming's small legal community, it is also worth seeking counsel with specific experience in these cases rather than general criminal practice.