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Statutory rape laws vary widely between U.S. states, making the measurement of its incidence in the broader U.S. population either impossible within contemporary datasets or too painstaking for researchers to pursue without support. To address this issue, this study examined the prevalence, characteristics, and consequences of statutory rape victimization and perpetration in the United States using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and the U.S. Census Bureau's American Communities Survey (ACS). To establish an empirical foundation for the study of statutory rape, this study pursued the following key objectives:

1. • Estimate nationally representative rates of statutory rape victimization and perpetration in the United States using the NLSY97, focusing on a) age-graded rates of victimization, b) age-graded rates of perpetration, and c) risk factors for statutory rape victimization and perpetration.
   • Assess situational differences between first sexual experiences that are statutory rape compared to those that are not, and assess the effectiveness of statutory rape laws across states with lax, moderate, and strict laws to affect teen sexual activity and victimization rates.
   • Estimate the likelihood of women's statutory rape victimization being reported to police, using NIBRS data on women's victimization and men's perpetration.
   • Assess the short and long-term consequences of statutory rape victimization based on a) the nature and characteristics of relationships between victims and perpetrators and b) the age difference between victims and perpetrators.

This collection includes the syntax files and data-map documentation needed to reproduce the data analysis conducted by this project, along with information describing the processes used to access NLSY97, NIBRS, and ACS data. Users should refer to the ICPSR README file for an inventory of all syntax and data-map files.