Children, sexuality, and the law
By: edited by Sacha M. Coupet and Ellen Marrus
Series: Families, law, and society series; Families, law, and society series
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 263
ISBN-13: 9780814723852
Subjects: Children and sex; Child sex offenders; Administration of Juvenile justice; Children's rights; Sexual rights; Sexual minority youth; Children; Legal status, laws
Description: American political and legal culture is uncomfortable with children's sexuality. While aware that sexual expression is a necessary part of human development, law rarely contemplates the complex ways in which it interacts with children and sexuality. Just as the law circumstances children to a narrow range of roles - either as entirely sexless beings or as victims or objects of harmful adult sexual conduct - so too does society tend to discount the notion of children as agents in the domain of sex and sexuality. Where a small body of rights related to sex has been carved out, the central question has been the degree to which children resemble adults, not necessarily whether minors themselves possess distinct and recognized rights related to sex, sexual expression, and sexuality. Children, Sexuality, and the Law reflects on some of the unique challenges that accompany children in the broader context of sex, exploring from diverse perspectives the ways in which children emerge in sexually related dimensions of law and contemporary life. It explores a broad range of issues, from the psychology of children as sexual beings to the legal treatment of adolescent consent. This work also explores whether and when children have a right to expression as understood within the First Amendment. The first volume of its kind, Children, Sexuality, and the Law goes beyond the traditional discourse of children as victims of adult sexual deviance by highlighting children as agents and rights holders in the realm of sex, sexuality, and sexual orientation. -- from dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction / -- Sacha M. Coupet and Ellen Marrus; title: Smells like teen spirit: the conundrum of kids, sex, and the law  -- Paul R. Abramson and Annaka Abramson; title: Consent, teenagers, and (un)civil(ized) consequences  -- Jennifer Ann Drobac; title: The wages of ignorance  -- Franklin E. Zimring; title: Sugar and spice and everything nice: definitely not the girls in the juvenile justice system  -- Ellen Marrus; title: Sexual media and American youth  -- Piotr Bobkowski and Autumn Shafer; title: Sex, laws, and videophones: the problem of juvenile sexting --; title: Prosecutions  -- Seth F. Kreimer; title: The right to comprehensive sex education  -- Hazel G. Beh; title: Policing gender on the playground: interests, needs, and rights of transgender and gender non-conforming youth  -- Sacha M. Coupet; title: Gender at the crossroads: LGBT youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems -- Barbara Fedders.