Agustin Malon

Agustín Malón Marco

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Agustín Malón Marco is a Spanish academic, a Professor at the University of Zaragoza, known for his research in the fields of sexology, sociology and criminology. He has focused particularly on issues related to child sexual abuse such as social psychology behind the moral panic, myth construction, iatrogenic harm. He advocates for nuanced approach to child's sexuality.

He completed his Bachelor's degree in Pedagogy (1988-1993) at the University of Salamanca and earned a Master's degree in sexology at the In.Ci.Sex (University of Alcalá) from 1996 to 1998. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Zaragoza in 2004. After completing his studies, he worked as a pedagogue in vocational training and volunteering, as well as an educator for minors in protection. He later focused on sexual education and sexological counseling for youth.

In 2004, after completing his doctoral thesis, which included fieldwork conducted in Guatemala youth court, he began his teaching career as an associate professor at the University of Zaragoza. He currently holds the position of contracted doctor professor in the Department of Theory and History of Education at the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences on the Huesca Campus. He has been a visiting professor at other universities (Chile, Colombia) and is also a regular lecturer at the same institute where he trained as a sexologist.

His main scientific interest lie in education and sexology. His research primarily focuses on the complex relationship between eroticism and childhood in Western society, with a special emphasis on the phenomenon of child sexual abuse. He approaches his research with skepticism and eclecticism, drawing from various critical perspectives and disciplines such as pedagogy, sexology, sociology, history, psychiatry, philosophy, and law.

Notable works

His notable works include:

• The monograph "Childhood, Sexuality and Danger. A modern discussion of child sexual abuse in contemporary societies" (Originally published in Spanish by Instituto de Sexologia, 2004)

This is part of his doctoral thesis and dedicated to the study of the social construction of childhood sexual abuse in the last third of the 20th century. Here he provides detailed analysis of the social context in which the modern danger of sexual abuse arose in the United States of the 1970s and 1980s. Points out what are the three indisputable traits characteristic of how this modern dread of the sexual abuse of minors is defined. And critically reviews the increasingly combat oriented language that dominates the field. For example, he mention so-called zero tolerance for abuse and negative consequences of that language. He questions the logic of this sweeping battle, some of its possible effects on professional practice, and the role granted to the justice system and penal codes in solving this problem.

• His recent book "Ética sexual contemporánea. Aspectos pedagógicos y límites"(Contemporary Sexual Ethics. Pedagogical aspects and limits)(Tirant lo Blanch, 2016)

In this book, a critical review of the fundamental arguments and premises that we can find in specialized literature on the moral status of erotic relationships between children and adults, as well as their ethical analysis, is carried out.

This latest work is the result of a long process of study and reflection that has generated several works, some of which appeared in the Archives of Sexual Behavior:

• Adult-Child Sex and the Limits of Liberal Sexual Morality (2015);

Critically reviews common arguments in the literature about the moral status of sexual relationships between adults and prepubescent children. Reveals deficiencies in ethical analyses based on general sexual morality.

• Pedophilia: a diagnosis in search of a disorder (2012);

Critically reviews controversies surrounding the diagnosis of pedophilia in the context of the DSM. Examines the relationship between pedophilia and the definition of mental disorder in the DSM-IV-TR.

• The "Participating Victim" in the Study of Erotic Experiences between Children and Adults: A Historical Analysis (2011).

This article explores the evolving perceptions of erotic experiences between minors and adults throughout the 20th century. It highlights the disappearance and redefinition of the concept of "participating victims" – minors perceived as willingly engaging in such relationships.

• He also worked on a study of the evolution of the legal age of consent for sexual relationships in Spain and planned to explore the history of sexual education in Spain in his next project.

Excerpts from Malon's studies

• Jahnke, S., & Marco, A. M. (2018). "How Pedohebephilic Think about Adult-Child Sex: Effects of Child Gender and Physical Maturity."

"Contrary to our expectations, gender and physical maturity neither affected the perceived morality of the sexual act, nor beliefs about the representativeness of the child's behavior. [...] Furthermore, participants with stronger liberal attitudes were found to be more likely to defend the sexual act [...] There was no link between attitudes towards adult-child sex and sexual offending, replicating the non-associations reported in previous community surveys."

• Jahnke, S., Schmitt, S., & Marco, A. M. (2017). "What if the Child Appears to Enjoy It? Moral Attitudes Toward Adult-Child Sex Among Men With and Without Pedohebephilia."

"The results show that only 7.5% among pedohebephilic men had equal or less permissive attitudes than the average control, while 4.5% of nonpedohebephilic men had equal or more permissive attitudes than the average pedohebephilic man. Both groups did not, however, differ in their appraisal that children may suffer indirect harm via stigmatization. The findings also indicate that the moral perception of adult-child sex shows little differentiation among German-speaking lay people."

• Marco, A. M. (2017). "Adult-Child Sex and the Demands of Virtuous Sexual Morality."

"This article is the continuation of a previous analysis of the usual arguments — lack of consent, exploitation and harm — used to evaluate sexual experiences between adults and children from general moral principles. It has been suggested that those arguments were insufficient to condemn all adult-child sexual experiences, and that it would be of interest to study others that come from a specific sexual morality based on a more complex and transcendent conception of human eroticism and sexual conduct. This paper develops three different arguments against adult-child sex from this perspective, a view which [...] complements and transforms them with a virtue ethic that questions not only the permissibility of certain acts but also their moral desirability under this frame of reference."

• Marco, A. M. (2015). "Adult–Child Sex and the Limits of Liberal Sexual Morality."

"This article is a critical review of the most common arguments in the specialized literature about the moral status of sexual relationships between adults and prepubescent children. The intent is to reveal how the usual ethical analysis of these experiences, done from a general sexual morality, with a Kantian and utilitarian basis, very clearly shows us the limits and contradictions of contemporary liberal morality regarding sexual matters. It leaves open the possibility that, under certain circumstances, these relationships may be morally admissible."

• Marco, A. M. (2012). "Pedophilia: A Diagnosis in Search of a Disorder."

"Scholars appear not to share numerous basic assumptions ranging from their underlying ideas about what constitutes a mental disorder to the role of psychiatry in modern society, including irreconcilable theories about human sexuality, which interfere with reaching any kind of a consensus as to what the psychiatric status of pedophilia should be. It is questioned if the diagnosis of pedophilia contained in the DSM is more forensic than therapeutic"

• Marco, A. M. (2011). "Victimology, Divergence, and Disinformation in Sexology: Commentary on Riegel (2011)."

"I would suggest the urgent necessity to differentiate sex and love from violence to clarify our comprehension and management of these issues [...] But it seems to me that this kind of logic is much too simplistic and inadequately considered, just as is Riegel’s suggestion (2011) that if some boys want and enjoy these experiences with older males, these relationships should then be normalized and allowed. I would submit that these issues are much more complex than that."

• Marco, A. M. (2011). "The "Participating Victim" in the Study of Erotic Experiences Between Children and Adults: An Historical Analysis."

"[O]ne of the most notable evolutions in how these experiences are treated has been the progressive disappearance and/or the intense redefinition of what earlier researchers called "participating victims," i.e., minors apparently interested in accepting and/or sustaining these relationships. [...] [T]his evolution can be fundamentally explained in terms of the intense emotional, moral, and ideological importance that is ascribed to these experiences in the rise of the current victimological paradigm."

• Marco, A. M. (2009). "On the Iatrogenic Nature of the Child Sexual Abuse Discourse.", copy at web.archive

"It is sometimes said that the solution is the problem; some minimally harmful experiences may well be severely exacerbated by overemphasizing their presumed invariable dreadfulness; indeed, essentially benign or neutral experiences can thus be made harmful. These iatrogenic tendencies may exist in four areas: the modern problematization of the erotic, the crisis of responsibility among individuals with a victimistic bent, the questionable penalties imposed on the ‘‘perpetrators,’’ and the damaging distractions between the sexes and generations."

• Marco, A. M. (2009). "Onanism and Child Sexual Abuse: A Comparative Study of Two Hypotheses.", copy at web.archive

"For some decades now in the West, there has been a growing social anxiety with regard to a phenomenon which has become known as child sexual abuse (CSA). This anxiety is fed by scientific theories whose cornerstone is the assessment of these experiences as necessarily harmful, due to their presumed serious consequences for the present and future lives of the minors involved in them. This principle, widely held by experts and laypersons alike, was also part and parcel of the danger presumably posed by Onanism, a phenomenon which occupied a similar position in society and medical science in the West during the eighteenth through twentieth centuries."

• Marco, A. M. (2009). "Infancia, sexualidad y peligro. Sobre la naturaleza iatrogénica de un discurso."

This is spanish version of the Marco, A. M. (2009). "On the Iatrogenic Nature of the Child Sexual Abuse Discourse."

• Marco, A. M. (2008). "LA HIPÓTESIS DEL TRAUMA EN EL ABUSO SEXUAL: REVISIÓN CRÍTICA E IMPLICACIONES." (The trauma hypothesis in sexual abuse: critical review and implications)

This article questions empirical foundation of the trauma hypothesis. To this end, nine previous reviews on the issue, published between 1981 and 1998, are critically analyzed.

See also

• Edward Brongersma
• Thomas O'Carroll
• Vern Bullough
• Gert Hekma
• Donald Mader
• William Percy
• David Thorstad
• John P. De Cecco
• Journal of Homosexuality
• Ken Plummer
• Gilbert Herdt
• Bruce Rind
• Philip Tromovitch
• John Money

External links

• Marco, A. M. (2004) "Childhood, Sexuality and Danger. A modern discussion of child sexual abuse in contemporary societies" on ipce