EUGENE VOLOKH ON WOODY ALLEN’S MANHATTAN: Is sex with a 17-year-old statutory rape? “I’ll save for another post the question whether there’s something immoral about 42-year-olds having sex with 17-year-olds, and focus here on the law — and the law in New York, both then and now, is that this isn’t statutory rape at all. The general age of consent in New York is 17; indeed, most states set the age of consent at 16, several more set it at 17, and only about a dozen set it at 18. (For more details, see here.) In nearly all other Western countries, the age of consent is 16 or younger, though a handful set it at 17. And these age-16-or-17 ages of consent aren’t just a post-Sexual-Revolution innovation.” It used to be 10 to 12.