NCJ Number
104370
Date Published
1986
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This critique of the report of Canada's Committee on Sexual Offenses Against Children and Youths (Badgley Report) notes its failure to address the existing patriarchal cultural influences that foster abusive sexual relations between adults and children while it fosters an oppressive state control of sexuality.
Abstract
The Badgley Report views child sexual abuse as deviant adult sexual behavior that significantly departs from cultural relational norms. The report fails to appreciate that dominant patriarchal cultural norms that view children as possessions of their parents, notably their fathers, is a basic factor in abusive adult-child relations. The report also adopts an extreme protectionist view of childhood sexual experiences, so that a child's consent and nonconsent to sexual expressions and experiences is irrelevant to state intervention. The state should not criminalize consensual sexual play and experimentation between young people or between adolescents and adults. On the other hand, young people must be taught to recognize and counter abusive and coercive sexual behavior. They should have the right to bring criminal charges against adults, including parents, who harass or coerce them. Instead of adopting a law-centered protectionist approach to childhood sexuality, the state should focus on developing cultural norms, institutions, and practices that foster equality and social autonomy for juveniles. 19 footnotes.