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ORS 163.315

Applied in 45 court decisions — leading case State v. Hansen (1987)

Most recently applied in State v. Propp (December 2025)

1971 c.743 §105; 1999 c.949 §2; 2001 c.104 §52; 2021 c.82 §2

How often courts cite this section

19791990200020102020202560
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A person is considered incapable of consenting to a sexual act if the person is:

(a) Under 18 years of age;

(b) Incapable of appraising the nature of the person’s conduct;

(c) Mentally incapacitated; or

(d) Physically helpless.

(2) A lack of verbal or physical resistance does not, by itself, constitute consent but may be considered by the trier of fact along with all other relevant evidence.

(3) A person is incapable of appraising the nature of the person’s conduct if:

(a) The person is unable to understand the nature of the conduct;

(b) The person is unable to understand the right to choose whether and how to engage in conduct, including the right to revoke a prior decision to engage in conduct; or

(c) The person is unable to communicate a decision to engage in conduct.

Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.