NCJ Number
183984
Date Published
1999
Length
362 pages
Annotation
This volume examines diverse forms of child sexual abuse in different countries and cultures, compares societal responses to existing research and policies, and considers how human rights law can help define what could and should be done to protect children from sexual maltreatment.
Abstract
The analysis emphasizes the ways in which abusive activities in different countries and societies are linked with one another and the way diverse societal attitudes toward children place them at risk. The discussion examines crucial developments in international human rights and notes that the current international children’s human rights movement urges child policymaking from the child’s point of view. It also assesses critiques of rights and addresses concerns regarding cultural relativism and emerging criticisms of the usefulness of framing social claims, interests, and responsibilities in terms of rights. The discussion also examines the reasons for the existence of childhood and its social construction and delineates three broad forms of sexual maltreatment: sexual use, abuse, and exploitation. Further sections examine the domestic and international dimensions of several interrelated forms of exploitation, particularly sex tourism, pornography, prostitution, international abduction, and sexual slavery. Other sections examine the sexual use of children in various cultural contexts through practices such as bodily mutilation, sexual relations during rites of passage, and child marriages. Additional chapters consider child sexual abuse in the context of human rights violations and policymaking and examine victimization by peers through child sexual harassment, acquaintance rape, relationship violence, and juvenile sex offending against younger children. The final chapter details recent transformations in the regulation of childhood and culture, pinpoints counterproductive aspects of prevailing ideologies of childhood, sexuality, maltreatment, and the law; and suggests directions for reforms that develop a more child-centered vision of human rights. Index and chapter reference notes