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Hebephilia : Quintessence of Diagnostic Pretextuality;
Behavioral Sciences and the Law;
(online),
Hebephilia is an archaic term used to describe adult sexual attraction to adolescents. Prior to the advent of contemporary sexually violent predator laws, the term was not found in any dictionary or formal diagnostic system. Overnight, it is on the fast track toward recognition as a psychiatric condition meriting inclusion in the upcoming ?fth edition of the em>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This article traces the sudden emergence and popularity of hebephilia to pressure from the legal arena and speci?cally to the legal mandate of a serious mental abnormality for civil commitment of sex offenders. Hebephilia is proposed as a quintessential example of pretextuality, in which special interests promote a pseudoscienti?c construct that furthers an implicit, instrumental goal. Inherent problems with the construct’s reliability and validity are discussed. A warning is issued about unintended consequences if hebephilia or its relative, pedohebephilia, make their way into the DSM-5, due out in 2013. Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hebephilia is an archaic term used to describe adult sexual attraction to adolescents. Prior to the advent of contemporary sexually violent predator laws, the term was not found in any dictionary or formal diagnostic system. Overnight, it is on the fast track toward recognition as a psychiatric condition meriting inclusion in the upcoming ?fth edition of the em>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This article traces the sudden emergence and popularity of hebephilia to pressure from the legal arena and speci?cally to the legal mandate of a serious mental abnormality for civil commitment of sex offenders. Hebephilia is proposed as a quintessential example of pretextuality, in which special interests promote a pseudoscienti?c construct that furthers an implicit, instrumental goal. Inherent problems with the construct’s reliability and validity are discussed. A warning is issued about unintended consequences if hebephilia or its relative, pedohebephilia, make their way into the DSM-5, due out in 2013. Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Hebephilia is a Mental Disorder?
The proposed inclusion of a hebephilic sexual orientation (early pubescent males and/or females) in DSM-5 compromises the scientific credibility of psychiatry. Moralism about the age of an acceptable sexual partner drives this proposal. It ignores common patterns of sexual arousal, cultural variability, and historic precedents. It blurs the domains of psychiatry and law. The age of sexual consent is 14 in much of Europe. An example of the new "mentally disordered" would be a 19 year old with a consenting 14 year old. Where sexual interaction is legally accepted, but pathologized as mental disorder, psychiatry attempts to act as an agent of social control.
The proposed inclusion of a hebephilic sexual orientation (early pubescent males and/or females) in DSM-5 compromises the scientific credibility of psychiatry. Moralism about the age of an acceptable sexual partner drives this proposal. It ignores common patterns of sexual arousal, cultural variability, and historic precedents. It blurs the domains of psychiatry and law. The age of sexual consent is 14 in much of Europe. An example of the new "mentally disordered" would be a 19 year old with a consenting 14 year old. Where sexual interaction is legally accepted, but pathologized as mental disorder, psychiatry attempts to act as an agent of social control.
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An Interesting Disseration: Deviance and Dissidents
N’Jai-An Elizabeth Patters has written an interesting dissertation:
Deviants and Dissidents: Children’s Sexuality and the Limits of Liberation.
A Dissertation to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota, 2010.
Quotes from this book are published here in Ipce's Library 4 at
< https://www.ipce.info/library/book/deviants-and-dissidents >.
The full text can be read in the attached PDF file, which includes the long list of References.
Of special interest might be the chapters 3 and 4:
Chapter 3 describes the history of NAMBLA, the North America Man-Boy Love Association.
Chapter 4 describes the important transition around the year 1980 from NAMBLA's 'The child has to be liberated' onto Societal's 'The child as a victim'.
The author describes the Child Abuse Panic in the USA since about 1980, especially the McMartin Preschool trial, seven years, including hundreds of accusations and extreme convictions, but ending in acquittance.
An important topic in this trial have been the way children had been interrogated, not by certificated therapists, but by fanatic zealots, who did not believe the children ... ...
N’Jai-An Elizabeth Patters has written an interesting dissertation:
Deviants and Dissidents: Children’s Sexuality and the Limits of Liberation.
A Dissertation to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota, 2010.
Quotes from this book are published here in Ipce's Library 4 at
< https://www.ipce.info/library/book/deviants-and-dissidents >.
The full text can be read in the attached PDF file, which includes the long list of References.
Of special interest might be the chapters 3 and 4:
Chapter 3 describes the history of NAMBLA, the North America Man-Boy Love Association.
Chapter 4 describes the important transition around the year 1980 from NAMBLA's 'The child has to be liberated' onto Societal's 'The child as a victim'.
The author describes the Child Abuse Panic in the USA since about 1980, especially the McMartin Preschool trial, seven years, including hundreds of accusations and extreme convictions, but ending in acquittance.
An important topic in this trial have been the way children had been interrogated, not by certificated therapists, but by fanatic zealots, who did not believe the children ... ...
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Pornography and Sex Crimes in the Czech Republic;
Archives of Sexual Behavior;
2010 Nov 30,
Pornography continues to be a contentious matter with those on the one side arguing it detrimental to society while others argue it is pleasurable to many and a feature of free speech. The advent of the Internet with the ready availability of sexually explicit materials thereon particularly has seemed to raise questions of its influence.
Following the effects of a new law in the Czech Republic that allowed pornography to a society previously having forbidden it allowed us to monitor the change in sex related crime that followed the change.
As found in all other countries in which the phenomenon has been studied, rape and other sex crimes did not increase. Of particular note is that this country, like Denmark and Japan, had a prolonged interval during which possession of child pornography was not illegal and, like those other countries, showed a significant decrease in the incidence of child sex abuse.
Pornography continues to be a contentious matter with those on the one side arguing it detrimental to society while others argue it is pleasurable to many and a feature of free speech. The advent of the Internet with the ready availability of sexually explicit materials thereon particularly has seemed to raise questions of its influence.
Following the effects of a new law in the Czech Republic that allowed pornography to a society previously having forbidden it allowed us to monitor the change in sex related crime that followed the change.
As found in all other countries in which the phenomenon has been studied, rape and other sex crimes did not increase. Of particular note is that this country, like Denmark and Japan, had a prolonged interval during which possession of child pornography was not illegal and, like those other countries, showed a significant decrease in the incidence of child sex abuse.
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Problems with Ascertainment;
Archives of Sexual Behavior;
39(6), 1225–1227
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Public Safety, Individual Liberty, and Suspect Science;
Temple Law Review
In recent decades, federal, state, and local governments have become increasingly restrictive on the freedom and privacy of those labeled sexually violent predators (“SVP”s) in hopes of preventing further sexual violence. The most commonly used tools to manage SVPs are involuntary commitments for mental treatment, sex offender registration, and residency restrictions (hereinafter “SVP laws”).
This article critically analyzes whether future dangerousness assessments using actuarial tools are responsive to legal standards contained in SVP laws and whether courts, when confronted with such assessments, are adequately engaging in the gatekeeper role to accept only good science considering the evidentiary benchmarks of Daubert and Frye.
Specifically, this article concludes that because of uncritical reliance upon actuarial assessments of future dangerousness, legal professionals have largely failed to grasp the significant empirical limitations of these tests.
In recent decades, federal, state, and local governments have become increasingly restrictive on the freedom and privacy of those labeled sexually violent predators (“SVP”s) in hopes of preventing further sexual violence. The most commonly used tools to manage SVPs are involuntary commitments for mental treatment, sex offender registration, and residency restrictions (hereinafter “SVP laws”).
This article critically analyzes whether future dangerousness assessments using actuarial tools are responsive to legal standards contained in SVP laws and whether courts, when confronted with such assessments, are adequately engaging in the gatekeeper role to accept only good science considering the evidentiary benchmarks of Daubert and Frye.
Specifically, this article concludes that because of uncritical reliance upon actuarial assessments of future dangerousness, legal professionals have largely failed to grasp the significant empirical limitations of these tests.
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The relationship between early sexual debut and psychosocial outcomes: A longitudinal study of Dutch adolescents;
Archives of Sexual Behavior
In a longitudinal dataset of 470 Dutch adolescents, the current study examined the ways in which early sexual initiation was related to subsequent attachment, self-perception, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. For male adolescents, analyses revealed general attachment to mother and externalizing problems at Wave 1 to predict to early transition at Wave 2. However, there was no differential change in these psychosocial factors over time for early initiators of sexual intercourse and their non-initiating peers. For female adolescents, the model including psychosocial factors at Wave 1 did not predict to sexual initiation at Wave 2. However, univariate repeated measures analyses revealed early initiators to have signi?cantly larger increases in self-concept and externalizing problems than their non-initiating female peers. While the difference between female early initiators and non-initiators were statistically signi?cant, the mean levels of problem behaviors were very low. The ?ndings suggest that, contrary to previous research, early sexual initiation does not seem to be clustered with problem behaviors for this sample of Dutch adolescents. [A]
In a longitudinal dataset of 470 Dutch adolescents, the current study examined the ways in which early sexual initiation was related to subsequent attachment, self-perception, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. For male adolescents, analyses revealed general attachment to mother and externalizing problems at Wave 1 to predict to early transition at Wave 2. However, there was no differential change in these psychosocial factors over time for early initiators of sexual intercourse and their non-initiating peers. For female adolescents, the model including psychosocial factors at Wave 1 did not predict to sexual initiation at Wave 2. However, univariate repeated measures analyses revealed early initiators to have signi?cantly larger increases in self-concept and externalizing problems than their non-initiating female peers. While the difference between female early initiators and non-initiators were statistically signi?cant, the mean levels of problem behaviors were very low. The ?ndings suggest that, contrary to previous research, early sexual initiation does not seem to be clustered with problem behaviors for this sample of Dutch adolescents. [A]
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Sexual Preference for 14-Year-Olds as a Mental Disorder: You Can’t Be Serious!!;
Archives of Sexual Behavior (published on line);
2010, March 4,
This letter addresses two papers by the DSM-V Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Workgroup member Ray Blanchard published in this Journal. [...]
A series of biased terms or logically frail arguments are provided for including hebephilia as a mental disorder.
This letter addresses two papers by the DSM-V Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Workgroup member Ray Blanchard published in this Journal. [...]
A series of biased terms or logically frail arguments are provided for including hebephilia as a mental disorder.
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Susan Clancy's Stake Through The Heart Of The Child Sex Abuse Industry
The most spectacular and debated book on this subject is Clancy's boldly entitled The Trauma Myth. It has driven a stake through the heart of the dogmatic assertion of the child sexual abuse industry that intergenerational sex - even that of infants under 6 and children under 13 with adults over 18 - is automatically traumatic to the younger person. Clancy, who interviewed only victims not hospitalized or in treatment, says that it only traumatizes those 10% compelled by violence and intimidation.
[...] Clancy’s work is not without flaws
The most spectacular and debated book on this subject is Clancy's boldly entitled The Trauma Myth. It has driven a stake through the heart of the dogmatic assertion of the child sexual abuse industry that intergenerational sex - even that of infants under 6 and children under 13 with adults over 18 - is automatically traumatic to the younger person. Clancy, who interviewed only victims not hospitalized or in treatment, says that it only traumatizes those 10% compelled by violence and intimidation.
[...] Clancy’s work is not without flaws
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The Trauma Myth;
Archives of Sexual Behavior
Book review of: The Trauma Myth, By Susan A. Clancy. Basic Books, New York, 2009.
The headline, press release, book title message trumpeted here is: Most children who experience sexual contact with adults are not traumatized at the time of the experience. [...]
Nevertheless, Clancy repeatedly reminds us how evil this non-traumatic (at the time) experience actually is. This moral mantra is identified as the catalyst of later trauma: ‘‘It is the act of sexual abuse and not the damage it causes that makes it wrong’’ (p. 185)
Book review of: The Trauma Myth, By Susan A. Clancy. Basic Books, New York, 2009.
The headline, press release, book title message trumpeted here is: Most children who experience sexual contact with adults are not traumatized at the time of the experience. [...]
Nevertheless, Clancy repeatedly reminds us how evil this non-traumatic (at the time) experience actually is. This moral mantra is identified as the catalyst of later trauma: ‘‘It is the act of sexual abuse and not the damage it causes that makes it wrong’’ (p. 185)
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The Trauma Myth - Susan A. Clancy - (book review)
In her book, The Trauma Myth, Susan Clancy, citing her scientific study, details a finding that anyone who has ever been subjected to non-violent, but unsolicited sexual advances in childhood could have come to on their own. Namely, the experience is seldom traumatic to the individual at the time. Although I have not done any formal research in this area, my own experiences, some of which I will expound on shortly, can attest to the validity of Clancy's astonishing finding.
In her book, The Trauma Myth, Susan Clancy, citing her scientific study, details a finding that anyone who has ever been subjected to non-violent, but unsolicited sexual advances in childhood could have come to on their own. Namely, the experience is seldom traumatic to the individual at the time. Although I have not done any formal research in this area, my own experiences, some of which I will expound on shortly, can attest to the validity of Clancy's astonishing finding.
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The Trauma Myth - Susan Clancy - The Book;
257 pp
Consensual, non-violent/not overtly coercive sexual activity involving adults and minors, contrary to popular belief, does NOT normally cause trauma to young people - even when engaged it at a very early age. Susan Clancy demonstrates this through her research, but fails to reach this (obvious) conclusion in her text.
This file gives some comments and reviews present in Ipce's library, as well as a link to the .PDF version of the book.
Consensual, non-violent/not overtly coercive sexual activity involving adults and minors, contrary to popular belief, does NOT normally cause trauma to young people - even when engaged it at a very early age. Susan Clancy demonstrates this through her research, but fails to reach this (obvious) conclusion in her text.
This file gives some comments and reviews present in Ipce's library, as well as a link to the .PDF version of the book.
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Why the Rush to Create Dubious New Sexual Disorders?;
Archives of Sexual Behavior;
(online),
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Statistics Laundering: false and fantastic figures,
Jan 03 2010
A very critical and well documented description of the myths, claimed to be "statistics", about child pornography and child abuse.
A very critical and well documented description of the myths, claimed to be "statistics", about child pornography and child abuse.
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The Trauma Myth: Understanding the True Dynamics of Sexual Abuse,
Jun 03 2010
Susan Clancy, in a nutshell, describes her theories on why sexual abuse is not seen as such by victims until the therapist has "reconceptualized" fully for the victim how the victims truly were abused and how their trust had been violated, even though the victims originally deny having felt that they had actually been abused.
Susan Clancy, in a nutshell, describes her theories on why sexual abuse is not seen as such by victims until the therapist has "reconceptualized" fully for the victim how the victims truly were abused and how their trust had been violated, even though the victims originally deny having felt that they had actually been abused.
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Pedophiles Find a Home on Wikipedia,
Jun 25 2010
A Fox news article on the attempts of Internet advocacy groups to maintain balanced information on Wikipedia.
A Fox news article on the attempts of Internet advocacy groups to maintain balanced information on Wikipedia.
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The Sexual Revolution and Children;
Der Spiegel,
Jul 02 2010
Translated from Der Spiegel: a description of the revolutionary years around 1968, when child sexuality was to be 'liberated' from 'bourgoise's' norms and culture, thus had to become completely free.
Translated from Der Spiegel: a description of the revolutionary years around 1968, when child sexuality was to be 'liberated' from 'bourgoise's' norms and culture, thus had to become completely free.
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Redeeming the Worst,
Jul 21 2010
What we’re watching is a morality play about the meanings of crime and punishment, a play whose antagonists have shaped the history of the American penal system.
On one side are those who seek retribution. To them, criminals, especially sex criminals, are unchangeable (or, in modern parlance, incurable), their sins indelible. The state’s duty, therefore, is not just to protect society but also to avenge the victims.
The other side believes, foremost, in rehabilitation — in moral language, redemption. To their supporters, Polanski has attained secular redemption through art; Berkowitz, divine redemption through worship.
Evidence overwhelmingly favors rehabilitation.
The rehabilitation principle dominated American criminology for much of the 20th century.
But in the law-and-order 1980s, the punishers began to win.
I spent a recent weekend with [...] people — ex-sex offenders, along with their families and allies, at the national convention of an extraordinary national movement, gathered under the umbrella of RSOL, or Reform Sex Offender Laws.
What we’re watching is a morality play about the meanings of crime and punishment, a play whose antagonists have shaped the history of the American penal system.
On one side are those who seek retribution. To them, criminals, especially sex criminals, are unchangeable (or, in modern parlance, incurable), their sins indelible. The state’s duty, therefore, is not just to protect society but also to avenge the victims.
The other side believes, foremost, in rehabilitation — in moral language, redemption. To their supporters, Polanski has attained secular redemption through art; Berkowitz, divine redemption through worship.
Evidence overwhelmingly favors rehabilitation.
The rehabilitation principle dominated American criminology for much of the 20th century.
But in the law-and-order 1980s, the punishers began to win.
I spent a recent weekend with [...] people — ex-sex offenders, along with their families and allies, at the national convention of an extraordinary national movement, gathered under the umbrella of RSOL, or Reform Sex Offender Laws.
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New mental health 'bible' will lead to almost everyone having a disorder, warn experts,
Jul 28 2010
British experts have warned the trend of diagnosing yet more mental health disorders was 'leaking into normality'.
An updated edition of a mental health bible for doctors could mean that soon no-one will be classed as normal, experts warned today.
Diagnoses for 'disorders' could be based on symptoms including toddler tantrums, mild mood swings and binge eating.
Sweeping changes are being made to the U.S Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which influences practitioners around the world.
British experts have warned the trend of diagnosing yet more mental health disorders was 'leaking into normality'.
An updated edition of a mental health bible for doctors could mean that soon no-one will be classed as normal, experts warned today.
Diagnoses for 'disorders' could be based on symptoms including toddler tantrums, mild mood swings and binge eating.
Sweeping changes are being made to the U.S Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which influences practitioners around the world.
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DSM-5 Proposals for Paraphilias: Suggestions for Reducing False Positives Related to Use of Behavioral Manifestations;
Archives of Sexual Behavior;
39(6), 1239–1244,
Aug 10 2010
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Crimen sollicitations: Tabooing incest after the orgy ;
Thymos;
4(2), 168,
Oct 01 2010
Late modernity's binary intrigue of child sexuality/abuse is understood as a backlash phenomenon reactive to a general trans-Atlantic crisis concerning the interlocking of kinship, religion, gender, and sexuality. Tellingly dissociated from 1980s gay liberation and recent encounters between queer theory and kinship studies, the child abuse theme articulates modernity's guarded axiom of tabooed incest and its projected contemporary predicament "after the orgy"-after the proclaimed disarticulation of religion-motivated, kin-pivoted, reproductivist, and gender-rigid socialities. "Child sexual abuse" illustrates a general situation of decompensated nostalgia: an increasingly imminent loss of the child's vital otherness is counter-productively embattled by the late modern overproduction of its banal difference, its status as "minor. " Attempts to humanize, reform, or otherwise moderate incest's current "survivalist" and commemorative regime of subjectivation, whether by means of ethical, empirical, historical, critical, legal, or therapeutic gestures, typically trigger the latter's panicked empiricism. Accordingly, most "critical" interventions, from feminist sociology and anthropology to critical legal studies, have largely been collusive with the backlash: rather than appraising the radical precariousness of incest's ethogram of avoidance in the face of late modernity's dispossessing analytics and semiotics, they tend to feed its state of ontological vertigo and consequently hyperextended, manneristic forensics.
Late modernity's binary intrigue of child sexuality/abuse is understood as a backlash phenomenon reactive to a general trans-Atlantic crisis concerning the interlocking of kinship, religion, gender, and sexuality. Tellingly dissociated from 1980s gay liberation and recent encounters between queer theory and kinship studies, the child abuse theme articulates modernity's guarded axiom of tabooed incest and its projected contemporary predicament "after the orgy"-after the proclaimed disarticulation of religion-motivated, kin-pivoted, reproductivist, and gender-rigid socialities. "Child sexual abuse" illustrates a general situation of decompensated nostalgia: an increasingly imminent loss of the child's vital otherness is counter-productively embattled by the late modern overproduction of its banal difference, its status as "minor. " Attempts to humanize, reform, or otherwise moderate incest's current "survivalist" and commemorative regime of subjectivation, whether by means of ethical, empirical, historical, critical, legal, or therapeutic gestures, typically trigger the latter's panicked empiricism. Accordingly, most "critical" interventions, from feminist sociology and anthropology to critical legal studies, have largely been collusive with the backlash: rather than appraising the radical precariousness of incest's ethogram of avoidance in the face of late modernity's dispossessing analytics and semiotics, they tend to feed its state of ontological vertigo and consequently hyperextended, manneristic forensics.
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Interrogating the Essential: Moral Baselines on Adult-Child Sex;
Thymos;
4(2), 149-167 ,
Oct 01 2010
In this paper I emphasize the multiple ways dominant moral and essentialist understandings feed into the wider regulatory norms and conventional thinking governing adult-child sexual relations. Clearly, researchers are not immune from the ascendant material and symbolic hegemony enjoyed by child sexual abuse (CSA) paradigms. Indeed the experience of the seven critical writers and researchers cited in the paper, coupled with the author's own experiences carrying out PhD research in this area, clearly reinforce this point. I contend that sociological and Foucauldian insights on age and sexual categorization can offer a helpful tool-kit for unpacking the contested claims from CSA survivors, child liber ationists, and the specific case of one respondent who resists victimological labelling of his sexual experiences with adults.
In this paper I emphasize the multiple ways dominant moral and essentialist understandings feed into the wider regulatory norms and conventional thinking governing adult-child sexual relations. Clearly, researchers are not immune from the ascendant material and symbolic hegemony enjoyed by child sexual abuse (CSA) paradigms. Indeed the experience of the seven critical writers and researchers cited in the paper, coupled with the author's own experiences carrying out PhD research in this area, clearly reinforce this point. I contend that sociological and Foucauldian insights on age and sexual categorization can offer a helpful tool-kit for unpacking the contested claims from CSA survivors, child liber ationists, and the specific case of one respondent who resists victimological labelling of his sexual experiences with adults.
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Introduction to special issue on "Boys' sexuality and age of consent";
Thymos;
4(2), 95-98,
Oct 01 2010
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Sexual consent and human rights;
Thymos;
4(2), 99-102,
Oct 01 2010
The basic human right to sexual autonomy and self-determination encompasses two sides: it enshrines both the right to engage in wanted sexuality on the one hand, and the right to be free and protected from unwanted sexuality, from sexual abuse and sexual violence on the other.
This concept elaborated by the European Court of Human Rights, in the light of European legal consensus, suggests that the age of consent for sexual relations (outside of relationships of authority and outside of pornography and prostitution) should be set between 12 and 16 years. In any event the age of criminal responsibility should be the same as the age of sexual consent.
The basic human right to sexual autonomy and self-determination encompasses two sides: it enshrines both the right to engage in wanted sexuality on the one hand, and the right to be free and protected from unwanted sexuality, from sexual abuse and sexual violence on the other.
This concept elaborated by the European Court of Human Rights, in the light of European legal consensus, suggests that the age of consent for sexual relations (outside of relationships of authority and outside of pornography and prostitution) should be set between 12 and 16 years. In any event the age of criminal responsibility should be the same as the age of sexual consent.