The Age of Consent as a Battle Against Nature
A higher age means a tougher battle. Is it worth it?
Laws don’t shape human nature. Rather, human nature shapes laws. Human nature is also variable between people. Consequently, laws largely persecute some parts of human nature on behalf of others. Laws must win every instance of deterrence with continuous, expensive, violent persecution.
That brings us to the age of consent. States have a choice here. It’s easy to see that the higher the age of consent goes, the more people it must deter, and therefore the enforcement must become more frequent and costly. This is obviously true since raising the age of consent increases the size of the set of people covered by it, and lowering decreases the size of that set.