Filtros: First Letter Of Last Name es L [Restablecer todos los filtros]
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Child sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and pedophilia: different names, different problems?
This article discusses the emergence of “sexual violence against children” as a current “social problem” and its breakdown into different modalities such as “child sexual abuse”, “sexual exploitation of children” and “pedophilia”. Although focused on a “problem” whose repercussions and visibility are not limited by national borders, it does not intend to account for all the different levels of this phenomenon. Instead, it aims to contribute to the understanding of one of this problem’s local manifestations, within the Brazilian legal, social and political context. Where relevant, references will be made to the international scene.
[... ... ...]
As we have seen, words are not neutral in this universe of political struggles, in so far they delineate not only differences of meaning, but also different political positions; not only different interpretations but also action strategies. [...]
Words and their meanings are constantly constructed and reinvented within disputes and social shifts at several levels. [...]
I hope that this historical and social analysis of the uses and meanings of the diversified vocabulary regarding “sexual violence against children” will contribute to a more reflective usage of the relevant classificatory categories.
This article discusses the emergence of “sexual violence against children” as a current “social problem” and its breakdown into different modalities such as “child sexual abuse”, “sexual exploitation of children” and “pedophilia”. Although focused on a “problem” whose repercussions and visibility are not limited by national borders, it does not intend to account for all the different levels of this phenomenon. Instead, it aims to contribute to the understanding of one of this problem’s local manifestations, within the Brazilian legal, social and political context. Where relevant, references will be made to the international scene.
[... ... ...]
As we have seen, words are not neutral in this universe of political struggles, in so far they delineate not only differences of meaning, but also different political positions; not only different interpretations but also action strategies. [...]
Words and their meanings are constantly constructed and reinvented within disputes and social shifts at several levels. [...]
I hope that this historical and social analysis of the uses and meanings of the diversified vocabulary regarding “sexual violence against children” will contribute to a more reflective usage of the relevant classificatory categories.
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Of Myths And Monsters;
The Cypress Times,
Nov 24 2009
Most of what our society believes about sex offenders is not true. Below are just a few of the beliefs we were taught that are either misleading or completely untrue: [... ... ... ...]
We need to seriously consider what truly works, not what simply feeds our anger and fear and makes us “feel good. [...] There are ways to address this issue from a realistic standpoint. [...]
In our narrow focus on the “Registered Sex Offender,” we tend to forget the big picture. Appeals to emotion rather than reason helped create a legal system of perpetual brokenness for victims, offenders, and the community alike.
Most of what our society believes about sex offenders is not true. Below are just a few of the beliefs we were taught that are either misleading or completely untrue: [... ... ... ...]
We need to seriously consider what truly works, not what simply feeds our anger and fear and makes us “feel good. [...] There are ways to address this issue from a realistic standpoint. [...]
In our narrow focus on the “Registered Sex Offender,” we tend to forget the big picture. Appeals to emotion rather than reason helped create a legal system of perpetual brokenness for victims, offenders, and the community alike.
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The Criminalizing of Teen Sex
[...] The criminalization of teenage sexual behavior has become a disturbing trend in our predator panicked society. We are simultaneously obsessed with sex and horrified by sex; our laws reflect this panic. [...]
Criminalizing teen sex is part of the “look tough on crime” stance which is popular in today’s society, yet few people are educating the public about the real possibility of teens landing on sex offender registries for irresponsible sexual behavior [...].
This mentality has led to disastrous consequences, destroying the lives of many teenagers by placing them on sex offender registries for life! [...]
However, what percentage of these cases involves forcible rape or child molestation as opposed to consensual sexual activity with peers?
In our quest to prevent sexual violence, we are willing to place marks of infamy on children as young as four in the name of public safety, proclaiming the ironic mantra, “If it saves just one child, then the law is worth it.”
Tell me, are we willing to destroy the lives of many children to save “just one child?”
[...] The criminalization of teenage sexual behavior has become a disturbing trend in our predator panicked society. We are simultaneously obsessed with sex and horrified by sex; our laws reflect this panic. [...]
Criminalizing teen sex is part of the “look tough on crime” stance which is popular in today’s society, yet few people are educating the public about the real possibility of teens landing on sex offender registries for irresponsible sexual behavior [...].
This mentality has led to disastrous consequences, destroying the lives of many teenagers by placing them on sex offender registries for life! [...]
However, what percentage of these cases involves forcible rape or child molestation as opposed to consensual sexual activity with peers?
In our quest to prevent sexual violence, we are willing to place marks of infamy on children as young as four in the name of public safety, proclaiming the ironic mantra, “If it saves just one child, then the law is worth it.”
Tell me, are we willing to destroy the lives of many children to save “just one child?”
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Sex Offender Myths: The Foundation for Sex Offender Laws,
Mar 01 2011
Nine myths about 'pedophiles' and 'sex offenders' ... often seen as synonyms ...
"The most misused word is pedophile. The psychiatric definition denotes strong sexual arousal and urges for pre-pubescent children; the legal usage is applied to all offenders with a minor victim, which is misleading since not all “child molesters” are “pedophiles”."
Nine myths about 'pedophiles' and 'sex offenders' ... often seen as synonyms ...
"The most misused word is pedophile. The psychiatric definition denotes strong sexual arousal and urges for pre-pubescent children; the legal usage is applied to all offenders with a minor victim, which is misleading since not all “child molesters” are “pedophiles”."
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Jackboot Jacqui brings back the ducking stool,
Sep 16 2008
Satire about the measures taken by the UK Government to combat 'paedophiles' - with a serious comment about reality today.
"Even grandparents and neighbours can demand an investigation into the background of any person who comes into contact with the children of family or friends.
In practice, that means absolutely everyone, unless you happen to be a hermit living in a cave in the Orkneys."
Satire about the measures taken by the UK Government to combat 'paedophiles' - with a serious comment about reality today.
"Even grandparents and neighbours can demand an investigation into the background of any person who comes into contact with the children of family or friends.
In practice, that means absolutely everyone, unless you happen to be a hermit living in a cave in the Orkneys."
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Jailbait: The Politics of Statutory Rape Laws in the United States - Review
In the first book-length study of such laws, Cocca reflects on their historical context, and, more important, she documents and analyzes important changes that legislators have enacted in the last thirty years. Drawing from scholarship on law and society, Cocca inquires into the legal system's role in constructing and regulating "cultural narratives about gender and sexuality" through statutory rape law (p. 3).
While preventing the sexual coercion of young people is "unquestionably a laudable goal," she writes, statutory rape laws actually do much more than that. They punish consensual sexual relationships that occur outside of marriage, thereby putting the weight of the law behind one particular form of sexual intimacy: marital heterosexuality.
[...]
The adoption of age-span provisions reflects sympathy for consensual heterosexual teen relationships, but the provisions address consent structurally rather than subjectively. This leaves many youths vulnerable to sexual coercion by their peers at the same time that it denies the relevance of consent outside of the age span.
As long as age operates as a proxy for consent (or the lack thereof), statutory rape law will continue to fail at least as many youth as it protects.
In the first book-length study of such laws, Cocca reflects on their historical context, and, more important, she documents and analyzes important changes that legislators have enacted in the last thirty years. Drawing from scholarship on law and society, Cocca inquires into the legal system's role in constructing and regulating "cultural narratives about gender and sexuality" through statutory rape law (p. 3).
While preventing the sexual coercion of young people is "unquestionably a laudable goal," she writes, statutory rape laws actually do much more than that. They punish consensual sexual relationships that occur outside of marriage, thereby putting the weight of the law behind one particular form of sexual intimacy: marital heterosexuality.
[...]
The adoption of age-span provisions reflects sympathy for consensual heterosexual teen relationships, but the provisions address consent structurally rather than subjectively. This leaves many youths vulnerable to sexual coercion by their peers at the same time that it denies the relevance of consent outside of the age span.
As long as age operates as a proxy for consent (or the lack thereof), statutory rape law will continue to fail at least as many youth as it protects.
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Doing Justice,
Feb 06 2008
Judith Levine tells the story of falsely convicted Baran, who has been freed after 21 years in prison.
Judith Levine tells the story of falsely convicted Baran, who has been freed after 21 years in prison.
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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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Harmful to Minors;
304 pp.
In the book, Levine lambastes US laws concerning child pornography, statutory rape, and abortion for minors using a variety of studies and interviews with teenagers and adults alike (see Acknowledgments). Levine also analyzes abstinence-only sex education, which Levine considers counter-productive and dangerous.
The book also examines the terms "harmful to minors" and "indecency," which Levine considers to be umbrella terms for censorship, ...
In the book, Levine lambastes US laws concerning child pornography, statutory rape, and abortion for minors using a variety of studies and interviews with teenagers and adults alike (see Acknowledgments). Levine also analyzes abstinence-only sex education, which Levine considers counter-productive and dangerous.
The book also examines the terms "harmful to minors" and "indecency," which Levine considers to be umbrella terms for censorship, ...
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Decent Exposure?,
Apr 29 2009
I’ve been peeved all month about the latest panic: “sexting.”
More and more states are bringing child-porn charges against teenagers who take racy pictures of themselves and send them electronically to lovers or pals.You might call sexting a dunderheaded act — who knows where your immortalized nipples might end up — but also a victimless “crime.”
Yet here is the amazing part: Child-porn law is based on the minor’s inability to consent to being photographed; the model is ipso facto a victim of the photographer. Sexting, in which the model is also the photographer, is a crime in which a person can be both perpetrator and victim at the same time.
U.S. sex law is like a black hole: Once reason falls in, it can never re-emerge.
Can all this get any stupider?
I’ve been peeved all month about the latest panic: “sexting.”
More and more states are bringing child-porn charges against teenagers who take racy pictures of themselves and send them electronically to lovers or pals.You might call sexting a dunderheaded act — who knows where your immortalized nipples might end up — but also a victimless “crime.”
Yet here is the amazing part: Child-porn law is based on the minor’s inability to consent to being photographed; the model is ipso facto a victim of the photographer. Sexting, in which the model is also the photographer, is a crime in which a person can be both perpetrator and victim at the same time.
U.S. sex law is like a black hole: Once reason falls in, it can never re-emerge.
Can all this get any stupider?
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Standing Member,
Oct 25 2006
Judith Levine critisizes Foley as a hypocrite: 'protecting the children', in the meantime having intimacy with his page. She also critisize the comments on Foley, naming him 'a pedophile', as well as the laws and other measures to 'protect children' against their own sexuality: "The words child and protection lose all meaning.
Judith Levine critisizes Foley as a hypocrite: 'protecting the children', in the meantime having intimacy with his page. She also critisize the comments on Foley, naming him 'a pedophile', as well as the laws and other measures to 'protect children' against their own sexuality: "The words child and protection lose all meaning.
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Preventing Sexual Abuse: Perspectives of Minor- Attracted Persons About Seeking Help;
Sexual Abuse
The primary aim of this exploratory research was to gain information from minor-attracted persons (MAPs) about their
(a) formal and informal experiences with help-seeking for minor attraction,
(b) perceived barriers to seeking help for concerns about minor attraction, and
(c) treatment priorities as identified by consumers of these services.
A nonrandom, purposive sample of MAPs (n = 293, 154 completed all questions) was recruited via an online survey.
Results show that 75% of participants did seek formal help from a professional; however, just less than half of them found the experience to be helpful. Characteristics of helpful therapeutic encounters included nonjudgmental attitudes, knowledge about minor attraction, and viewing clients in a person-centered and holistic way. Barriers to help seeking included uncertainty about confidentiality, fear of negative reaction or judgment, difficulties finding a therapist knowledgeable about MAPs, and financial constraints. Understanding or reducing attraction to minors were common treatment goals, but participants also prioritized addressing general mental health and well-being related to depression, anxiety, loneliness, and low self-esteem.
Implications for effective and ethical counseling and preventive interventions for MAPs are discussed.
The primary aim of this exploratory research was to gain information from minor-attracted persons (MAPs) about their
(a) formal and informal experiences with help-seeking for minor attraction,
(b) perceived barriers to seeking help for concerns about minor attraction, and
(c) treatment priorities as identified by consumers of these services.
A nonrandom, purposive sample of MAPs (n = 293, 154 completed all questions) was recruited via an online survey.
Results show that 75% of participants did seek formal help from a professional; however, just less than half of them found the experience to be helpful. Characteristics of helpful therapeutic encounters included nonjudgmental attitudes, knowledge about minor attraction, and viewing clients in a person-centered and holistic way. Barriers to help seeking included uncertainty about confidentiality, fear of negative reaction or judgment, difficulties finding a therapist knowledgeable about MAPs, and financial constraints. Understanding or reducing attraction to minors were common treatment goals, but participants also prioritized addressing general mental health and well-being related to depression, anxiety, loneliness, and low self-esteem.
Implications for effective and ethical counseling and preventive interventions for MAPs are discussed.
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The trouble with boys,
May 10 2006
It is no secret that Britten liked boys, and liked them young. He wrote them into some 30 works. In his operas boys are pivotal, start to finish. [...] There is no masking the composer’s affinity for the puerile, a fascination glossed away as Peter Pannish while he was alive but hedged nowadays by widespread and wholly justified anxieties of paedophilia, a malignant vice borne on internet wings.
It is this love of boys that triggers our squeamishness about Britten and the sooner we get to the root of it the sooner we will be able to embrace the work without qualm. [...]
Yes, he was interested in boys, but they were no more than reflections of the boy in himself, an inner voice that was, as he sometimes hinted, the source of his inspiration, an ideal of beauty and goodness. [...]
The time has come to lay the rumours to rest and concentrate on the benefice of the Britten legacy.
It is no secret that Britten liked boys, and liked them young. He wrote them into some 30 works. In his operas boys are pivotal, start to finish. [...] There is no masking the composer’s affinity for the puerile, a fascination glossed away as Peter Pannish while he was alive but hedged nowadays by widespread and wholly justified anxieties of paedophilia, a malignant vice borne on internet wings.
It is this love of boys that triggers our squeamishness about Britten and the sooner we get to the root of it the sooner we will be able to embrace the work without qualm. [...]
Yes, he was interested in boys, but they were no more than reflections of the boy in himself, an inner voice that was, as he sometimes hinted, the source of his inspiration, an ideal of beauty and goodness. [...]
The time has come to lay the rumours to rest and concentrate on the benefice of the Britten legacy.
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Quotes from: Lover, Mentor, or Exploiter;
Archives of Sexual Behavior;
51, 987-999
Sexual relationships between an adolescent and an older person are considered controversial and in many countries are conceptualized under the legal definition of statutory relationship/rape. Despite the consensus regarding their potential negative implications, little is known about how adolescents perceive and construct them. To address this lacuna, the current exploratory study examined how individuals who have experienced sexual relationships with an adult while growing up perceived the older person and the meaning they ascribed to the age gap [...]
A qualitative thematic methodology was incorporated in analyzing in-depth semi-structured interviews with 28 individuals (...) who had experienced sexual relationships with an (at least 2 years) older person during adolescence (...).
Participants described five different perceptions of the older persons:
- [1] romantic partner;
- [2] sexual partner;
- [3] authority figure;
- [4] complex/unstable figure; and
- [5] exploiter.
Subsequent analysis, focusing on the role participants assigned to age when describing these different images of older persons, shed additional light on their subjective perceptions; namely, for each image, age had a particular meaning.
This paper may contribute to the understanding of individuals’ experiences of sexual relationships with an older person by emphasizing the complexity of such relationships, as reflected in the participants’ construction of the older person’s image, potentially providing important information that can inform best practice for professionals working with this population.
Findings highlight the need to address diversity and ambiguity rather than the uniform dichotomy that characterizes the legal framing of automatically constructing these relationships as statutory.
Further implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.
Sexual relationships between an adolescent and an older person are considered controversial and in many countries are conceptualized under the legal definition of statutory relationship/rape. Despite the consensus regarding their potential negative implications, little is known about how adolescents perceive and construct them. To address this lacuna, the current exploratory study examined how individuals who have experienced sexual relationships with an adult while growing up perceived the older person and the meaning they ascribed to the age gap [...]
A qualitative thematic methodology was incorporated in analyzing in-depth semi-structured interviews with 28 individuals (...) who had experienced sexual relationships with an (at least 2 years) older person during adolescence (...).
Participants described five different perceptions of the older persons:
- [1] romantic partner;
- [2] sexual partner;
- [3] authority figure;
- [4] complex/unstable figure; and
- [5] exploiter.
Subsequent analysis, focusing on the role participants assigned to age when describing these different images of older persons, shed additional light on their subjective perceptions; namely, for each image, age had a particular meaning.
This paper may contribute to the understanding of individuals’ experiences of sexual relationships with an older person by emphasizing the complexity of such relationships, as reflected in the participants’ construction of the older person’s image, potentially providing important information that can inform best practice for professionals working with this population.
Findings highlight the need to address diversity and ambiguity rather than the uniform dichotomy that characterizes the legal framing of automatically constructing these relationships as statutory.
Further implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.
