the minor is a defense if the minor is sixteen or seventeen, but not if the minor is under sixteen. See Utah Code Ann. § 76-2-304.5(1), (2) (1999). 123 This statutory scheme reflects our legislature's careful consideration of the level of protection required for minors of different ages. We simply cannot say that our legislature's determination to preclude the mistake of age defense for sexual activity with a minor fourteen or fifteen is so arbitrary as to run afoul of the Constitution. Like the statute at issue in Ransom, section 76-5-401 offends no deeply-rooted and fundamental tradition of due process. Children have historically received special protection from sexual contact with adults. See Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 251 n. 8, 72 S.Ct. 240, 244, 96 L.Ed. 288 (1952) (<HOLDING>); see also Colin Campbell, Annotation, Mistake
holding that mistake as to the age of the victim is no defense to statutory rape recognizing cases in which this court has declined to impose a culpable mental state with respect to the element of a childs age in statutes that protect children holding that against her will in the rape statute means without her consent and that the fact that the victim was under the age of consent was sufficient to establish that element recognizing that the court has historically retained the discretion to decline purely declaratory relief and that glc 231a 3 codifies this discretion recognizing that statutory rape has historically not required mens rea regarding element of vietims age