Synopses & Reviews
This book analyzes the development of age of consent laws in the UK from the nineteenth century to the present, in international perspective. The analysis, informed by contemporary perspectives in social theory on gender, sexuality, youth and childhood, focuses upon changing understandings of citizenship embodied in the law.
Synopsis
The Age of Consent; Young People, Sexuality and Citizenship addresses the contentious issue of how children's sexual behaviour should be regulated. The text includes: -A unique history of age of consent laws in the UK, analysed via contemporary social theory -A global comparative survey of age of consent laws and relevant international human rights law -A critical analysis of how protectionist agendas shaped new age of consent laws in England and Wales in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 -In-depth theoretical discussion of the rationale for age of consent laws -An original proposal to reduce the age of consent to 14 for young people who are less than two years apart in age Responding to contemporary concerns about young people's sexual behaviour, sexual abuse and paedophilia, this book will engage readers in law and socio-legal studies, sociology, history, politics, social policy, youth and childhood studies, and gender and sexuality studies; and professionals and practitioners working with young people.
Synopsis
Addressing the contentious issue of how children's sexual behavior should be regulated, this book explores the history of age of consent laws in the UK and provides a global comparative survey of age of consent laws and relevant international human rights law.
About the Author
MATTHEW WAITES is Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK. He has published a variety of articles on young people's sexuality and lesbian, gay and bisexual politics in the UK, and is co-editor, with Jeffrey Weeks and Janet Holland, of Sexualities and Society: A Reader.
Table of Contents
Introduction * Theorising Age of Consent Laws * Age of Consent Laws in Global Perspective * Heterosexuality and the Age of Consent * Homosexuality and the Age of Consent * Sexual Liberationism and the Search for New Sexual Knowledge * Equality at Last? Age of Consent Debates in the 1990s * New Age of Consent Laws: Adulthood and Childhood * Rethinking Age of Consent Laws