Children as 'Risk'

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Children and Young People

Anne-Marie McAlinden

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781107144842
• eBook ISBN: 9781108693370
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Criminal Law
• Index: Law

This book critically examines socio-political constructions of risk related to sexual offending behaviour by and among children and young people and charts the rise of harmful sexual or exploitative behaviour among peers, drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks and primary research. Discussion of these behaviours is exhibited against a backdrop of the premature cultural sexualisation of contemporary childhood, which challenges traditional conceptions of childhood, victimhood and gendered sexual identities more broadly. It examines the complexities of peer-based sexual behaviours in a range of settings, including within organisational contexts such as schools and care homes, within families and peer-based relationships, as well as online contexts including sexting and cyberbullying. It draws out the myriad legal, practical and policy challenges of negotiating the boundaries between normal/experimental, risky/problematic and harmful sexual behaviour, and in particular the demarcation between coercion and consent, both for professionals as well as children and young people themselves.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Part I The Theoretical and Policy Context
• Part II Children as ‘Risk’: Children and Young People Who Display Harmful Sexual or Exploitative Behaviour
• Part III Future Approaches
• Appendix: Research Methodology
• Bibliography
• Index