A fixed legal age of consent is used to determine when a person has the capacity to consent to sex yet in the late Victorian period the idea became a vehicle through which to address varied social concerns, from child prostitution and child sexual abuse to chastity and marriageability of working-class girls. This article argues that the Criminal Law Amendment Act (CLAA) 1885, the Act that raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen, and its application were driven by constructions of gender in conjunction with those of social class and working class family. The article firstly argues that CLAA 1885 and related campaigns reinforced class boundaries, and largely framed the working class family as absent, thereby, requiring the law to step in as a surrogate parent to protect the girl child. Secondly, the paper focuses on narratives emerging from the archives and argues that while narratives of capacity and protection in particular were key concepts behind reforms, the courts showed limited understanding of these terms. Instead, the courts focused on notions resistance, consent, and untrustworthiness of the victim, even when these concepts were not relevant to the proceedings due to victims' young age.

中文翻译：

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“早熟女孩”：19世纪晚期英格兰的同意、阶级和家庭时代

一个固定的法定同意年龄被用来确定一个人何时有能力同意性行为，但在维多利亚时代后期，这个想法成为解决各种社会问题的工具，从儿童卖淫和儿童性虐待到贞操和可婚性工薪阶层的女孩。本文认为，1885 年《刑法修正案》（CLAA）将该法案的同意年龄从 13 岁提高到 16 岁，其适用是由性别建构以及社会阶级和工人阶级家庭的建构驱动的。文章首先认为 CLAA 1885 及相关运动强化了阶级界限，并在很大程度上将工人阶级家庭视为缺席，从而要求法律作为代孕父母介入以保护女童。其次，该文件侧重于档案中出现的叙述，并认为虽然能力和保护的叙述尤其是改革背后的关键概念，但法院对这些术语的理解有限。取而代之的是，法院将重点放在了受害人的抗拒、同意和不信任等概念上，即使这些概念由于受害人年龄较小而与诉讼程序无关。