The table below summarizes these laws for individual U.S. Cases of parent-adult child incest exposed to law enforcement are usually uncovered by another parent. Ohio allows incest between consenting adults only when one party is not a parental figure (see table below) to the other.Īs of 2010, cases of incest involving consenting adults are often not revealed to outside parties, and therefore prosecutions of these cases do not frequently occur. New Jersey also increases the severity of underage sex offenses by a degree if they are also incestuous, and criminalizes incest with 16-17 year olds (the normal age of consent in New Jersey is 16). In New Jersey and Rhode Island, incest between consenting adults (16 or over for Rhode Island, 18 or over for New Jersey) is not a criminal offense, though marriage is not allowed in either state.
In all but two states (and the special case of Ohio, which 'targets only parental figures'), incest is criminalized between consenting adults.
Further information: Sexuality in the United States
