Incest, paedophilia 'like being gay', judge says ;
Fairfax Media, New Zealand,
Jul 10 2014
Judge Garry Neilson compared incest and paedophilia to homosexuality.
A Sydney judge has compared incest and paedophilia to homosexuality, saying the community may no longer see sexual contact between siblings and between adults and children as "unnatural" or "taboo".
;
Judge Garry Neilson compared incest and paedophilia to homosexuality.
A Sydney judge has compared incest and paedophilia to homosexuality, saying the community may no longer see sexual contact between siblings and between adults and children as "unnatural" or "taboo".
Alice in Wonderland: Sexual Upbringing in America;
287 pp
We can't stop our children from finding out about types of sexuality that we don't like. But if we openly and honestly discuss sex with our children, we can help make them responsible and caring in their own sexual choices regardless of what today's world exposes them to.
As I will shortly discuss, we know that infants masturbate and children of all ages explore each other's genitalia. So sex in children is far from dormant.
Let's be honest about preadolescent sexuality.
If we want to reduce exploitation of children, we have to empower children. Young people need to know that they have real choices to make in the area of sexuality. To do that we must develop a pluralistic rather than a dogmatic approach to sex.
Forbidding or ignoring all child sexuality does not give a child control over his or her sexuality. Only when children are given the right to say yes to some forms of sexual exploration will children feel that they have the responsibility to say no to other sexual practices.
;
We can't stop our children from finding out about types of sexuality that we don't like. But if we openly and honestly discuss sex with our children, we can help make them responsible and caring in their own sexual choices regardless of what today's world exposes them to.
As I will shortly discuss, we know that infants masturbate and children of all ages explore each other's genitalia. So sex in children is far from dormant.
Let's be honest about preadolescent sexuality.
If we want to reduce exploitation of children, we have to empower children. Young people need to know that they have real choices to make in the area of sexuality. To do that we must develop a pluralistic rather than a dogmatic approach to sex.
Forbidding or ignoring all child sexuality does not give a child control over his or her sexuality. Only when children are given the right to say yes to some forms of sexual exploration will children feel that they have the responsibility to say no to other sexual practices.
Child Abuse,
Oct 03 2003
Defining Abuse in Historical Context, Innocence and Abuse, Preventing and Prosecuting Child Abuse
Entry from Gale Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
Child abuse, as a historical subject, is deeply problematic, since the concept of abuse is inevitably relative and can be only very tentatively applied across cultures and across centuries.
The watershed in the history of child abuse must be dated as recently as 1962, when child abuse received its modern formulation by the American medical establishment as the battered-child syndrome.
The attribution of innocence implied the possibility of violation, and the necessity of protection.
A full generation after "The Battered-Child Syndrome" was first published, there is general public recognition that various forms of child abuse are pervasive – but also an awareness that abuse may remain largely concealed within the domestic walls that protect family privacy.
Furthermore, just as treatment of children in the historical past may appear abusive by current standards, so there is also a divergence of perspectives within contemporary society about what exactly constitutes abuse.
For all these reasons, child abuse is a social problem that has been recognized but by no means resolved.
;
Defining Abuse in Historical Context, Innocence and Abuse, Preventing and Prosecuting Child Abuse
Entry from Gale Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
Child abuse, as a historical subject, is deeply problematic, since the concept of abuse is inevitably relative and can be only very tentatively applied across cultures and across centuries.
The watershed in the history of child abuse must be dated as recently as 1962, when child abuse received its modern formulation by the American medical establishment as the battered-child syndrome.
The attribution of innocence implied the possibility of violation, and the necessity of protection.
A full generation after "The Battered-Child Syndrome" was first published, there is general public recognition that various forms of child abuse are pervasive – but also an awareness that abuse may remain largely concealed within the domestic walls that protect family privacy.
Furthermore, just as treatment of children in the historical past may appear abusive by current standards, so there is also a divergence of perspectives within contemporary society about what exactly constitutes abuse.
For all these reasons, child abuse is a social problem that has been recognized but by no means resolved.