Minor-adult sex

Minor-adult sex is a term referring to sexual intercourse between an adult (a person over the age of consent), and a minor, usually viewed as a person below the age of consent (in other contexts, specifically a pre-adolescent or pre-pubescent youth). In most industrialized societies, minor-adult sex is considered child sexual abuse by a large majority of people. Societal views and legal ramifications have varied across cultures and throughout history. In a less strict definition, it may refer to a wider range of sexual activity. People often colloquially, though inaccurately, refer to all such activity as pedophilia.

Historical views

The phenomenon of sex between juveniles and adults is observable throughout the animal kingdom and has served different functions during the recorded history of mankind. In the late 19th century, early industrialized Western societies discovered "youth" as a distinct period of life, and began criminalizing sexual interaction between children and adults. Modern Western cultures began to deem harmful all sexual relations between adults and youth, giving rise to the contemporary concept of child sexual abuse.

Very recently the topic of minor-adult sex has become a topic of serious research apart from assumptions of child sexual abuse, as well as entering mainstream entertainment and media as a serious area of debate and research.

Across cultures

While most Western societies condemn minor-adult sex as child sexual abuse, not all cultures do so.

According to the 2001 Human Rights Watch World Report, in Yemen in 1999 the minimum marriage age of fifteen for women, rarely enforced, was abolished; the onset of puberty, interpreted by conservatives to be at the age of nine, was set as a requirement for consummation of marriage.

Nonhuman comparisons

It seems that sexual activity in many higher vertebrate species has evolved from simple procreation to additionally serve purposes of social nature, and thus many species engage in a variety of sexual activities beyond fertilization, or strict opposite-sex and adult-adult pairings. The displayal of sexual interest towards fellow specimen tends to instantly end intra-species conflicts and aggressive behavior, and to initiate sexual activity, however it is under dispute among academics whether these sexual displayals to end conflicts count as domination and submission or rather consensual restoration of group peace by mutually enjoyed behavior.

Naming the common forms of intimate juvenile-adult sexual interactions in animals, German psychologist, sociologist, ethnologist, Indo-European scholar, religious scholar, and philosopher Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg writes:

The 'fondling' connected with the reaction to the infant model in non-human primates, and in those primitive peoples that have no taboos relating to this, includes caresses, smelling, licking, 'romping', and the well-known 'grooming'. Touching and manipulation of the genitals of children belong in this context among the acts of devotion, while in humans, as a result of the heightened mobility of the hand, manual actions can supplement many of the forms of devotion mentioned. Their own reaction to the encoded stimulus of the infant model brings to those reacting an intensive experience of satisfaction (the 'reward' of nature, so to speak, for the response to the encoded stimulus).

While also engaging in juvenile-adult sexual interactions, adult males "appear to limit penetration and ejaculation to contacts with mature females", that is to procreative sexual activities.

While it seems common for immature individuals to practice sexual interactions with mature ones and thus most juveniles within populations seem to go through a stage at one time or another with more or less frequent such behavior with adults, the percentage of mature individuals within a herd or pack to engage in this behavior appears more limited, and these adults often do so in a promiscious fashion.

Many individual members of higher vertebrate species do not exhibit nurturing behavior towards the young of their species independently of social factors, i. e. if they are separated from their group early in life, growing up and reaching adulthood in isolation; even highly violent and murderous behavior towards their own offspring is observed in, for instance, chimpanzee mothers that grew up in isolation. An unusually high correlation is however observed between adult desire for practicing consensual juvenile-adult sexual interactions and obviously instinctly triggered nurturing behavior towards juveniles even in case of prior isolation of the adult individual, a correlation so high that it appears that adult individuals desiring juvenile-adult sexual interactions could be the only individuals posessing a genetical nurturing instinct independent of social influence.

Ethical considerations

Sex within intergenerational marriages

Ibn Warraq writes that Muhammad's example encourages the practice of child marriage in Muslim communities: "child marriages continue to be practiced, and the fact that the Prophet himself married Aisha when she was only nine and he was fifty-three encourages Muslim society to continue with this iniquitous custom."

Sex as form of abuse

The widely-accepted view of minor-adult sex among both legal experts and lay people is that it is an inherently abusive practice by the adult against the minor. Supported by evidence from several studies of child sexual abuse victims, psychologists argue that the inability of minors to provide full and informed consent to sexual acts necessarily makes all such acts abusive in regards to the minor (or child).

The American Psychiatric Association maintains the position that "children cannot consent to sexual activity with adults", and condemns the action of the adult in strong terms: "An adult who engages in sexual activity with a child is performing a criminal and immoral act which never can be considered normal or socially acceptable behavior."

A paper by David Finkelhor argued for "the importance of a stronger ethical position" than the belief that sex with adults causes harm to children. In his paper, Finkelhor calls into question what he considers to be three common arguments relating to "intrinsic harm", "premature sexualization" and "unnaturalness" of the act, describing them as both inadequate and lacking in solid empirical footing. Instead, he draws a parallel between Adult-child sex and sex between a therapist and a patient, stating that while there may be cases where the patient benefits, it should still be considered wrong due to the fundamental asymmetry of the relationship.He wrote: "It is suggested that basing the prohibition of adult-child sex on the premise that children are incapable of full and informed consent will provide a more solid and consistent approach to the problem."

Sex as non-abusive

Those who have disagreed with the majority viewpoint include philosophers, academics, writers, and pro-pedophile activists. In the controversial 2002 book Harmful to Minors, the feminist writer Judith Levine wrote that some scholars challenge the idea that all sexual activity between adults and minors is necessarily harmful, and that in some cases, "quite young" people can have a positive sexual experience with an adult, referring specifically to "happy consensual sex among kids under 12."Psychologists Bruce Rind and Robert Bauserman argued in a 1998 study (Rind et al.) that not all cases of minor-adult sex should be termed child sexual abuse. Authors of the study argued that "CSA does not cause intense harm on a pervasive basis regardless of gender.", and that "an important reason why the assumed properties of CSA failed to withstand empirical scrutiny in the current review is that the construct of CSA, as commonly conceptualized by researchers, is of questionable scientific validity." This study was officially "condemned" by the United States Congress, an event which marked the first time in U.S. history that Congress officially condemned a study published in a major scientific journal.

Impetus

Close-in-age

Strictly speaking, sex between a person just below the age of consent and a person just above it can be termed (and considered by some) to be a form of minor-adult sex. In these situations, legal defenses are often available when the age difference is small.

Pedophilia

The American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization both define pedophilia as attraction by adults and older youths toward prepubescent children (less than 13 years of age), whether the attraction is acted upon or not. Researchers like Howard E. Barbaree have argued for a sharper focus on sexual activity over sexual attraction, asserting that the diagnosis of pedophilia only apply to those who have sexual relations with children, rather than to all who experience the desire.

Some research indicates that most perpetrators of child sexual abuse are not primarily interested in prepubescent youths. In two studies designed to measure sexual preferences using phallometric data, it was found that "30% of the [child sex] offenders tested did not show sufficient arousal [to children] to derive a usable score." Sociology professor Rüdiger Lautmann, in his book on pedophilia, stated: "In this book I am concerned exclusively with the first type [the true pedophile who "has a general interest in social contact with children, including a sexual dimension"], which constitutes approximately 5% of all pedosexually active men." A survey of cases of father-daughter incest concluded that most involve fathers who are situational offenders, rather than pedophiles.

Ephebophilia

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Initiation

A sexual initiation is a first experience of sexual intercourse by a minor, usually a teenager or late adolescent, with an adult, and is more common among boys and women than girls and men.

Prostitution

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Legal implications

Issues

Sexual relations between adults and minors are widely outlawed, although the definition of minor varies greatly between different cultures and jurisdictions. Adults violating these laws are generally subject to severe criminal penalties, in some cases life imprisonment or capital punishment.

In the interest of protecting minors, this practice is outlawed, along with other forms of child abuse and sexual assault, almost everywhere. Adults violating these laws are generally subject to severe criminal penalties, in some cases life imprisonment or capital punishment. Production of child pornography also incurs strict punishment because it itself constitutes child sexual abuse. The possession and distribution of child pornography is likewise punished with strict measures, due to the assumed possibility of these acts to facilitate further child sexual abuse.

The popular consensus in defining the appropriate age of consent has moved upwards in modern times, coincident with changes in scientific and moral views of human sexuality and the psychological and social nature of childhood. In England, the legal age of consent was 10 for three centuries, until the end of the 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, 14 to 18 had become the norm in many places, particularly Western and Western-influenced countries. In the 21st century, sexual relationships between adults and minors aged 16 to 18 are now considered legal in most countries, but legal variations exist allowing for ages of consent as young as 12 or as old as 21. A minority of countries either do not have any enforceable legal age of consent regulations, or have abolished such regualtions entirely in favour of arbitrary societal judgement and local customs.. According to the 2001 Human Rights Watch World Report, in Yemen in 1999 the minimum marriage age of fifteen for women, rarely enforced, was abolished; the onset of puberty, interpreted by conservatives to be at the age of nine, was set as a requirement for consummation of marriage.

While sexual intercourse without consent is considered rape, adult's intercourse with a person below the legal age of consent, either with or without consent, is punishable under law with varying severity. In case of statutory rape, consent by the minor is not considered as legal consent.

French petitions and letters

In 1977, a petition was addressed to the French Parliament calling for the repeal of several articles of the age-of-consent law and the decriminalization of all consented relations between adults and minors below the age of fifteen (the age of consent in France at the time). The document was signed by the philosophers Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as by novelist and gay activist Guy Hocquenghem, and by "people belonging to a wide range of political positions". Similar sentiments were expressed by 69 signers of an open letter published January 26, 1977 in Le Monde concerning two men accused of violating France's age of consent law.

Another open letter was published in Libération in March, 1979, this time signed by 63 prominent French intellectuals, supporting a Frenchman accused of sexual relations with girls aged 6 to 12. According to the letter, the girls' "blooming shows before the eyes of all, including their parents, the happiness that they found with him."

Academic research

Difficulty in researching

Psychiatrist Jay R. Feierman, describing what he considers to be the most common shortcomings of literature on minor-adult sex, writes:

...most of the lay and professional literature, although voluminous, reflect a narrow anthropo-, ethno-, and chronocentrism that precludes any real understanding of the topic with anything more than the preconceptions of our times. The writing is anthropocentric because the topic often is discussed as though humans were the only species in which sexual behavior between adults and nonadults is found. The writing is ethnocentric because the behavior is discussed as though it were, somehow, peculiar to Western industrialized societies. The writing is chronocentric because the behavior is discussed as though it were a recent development in the history of the human species. All of these ‘-centrisms’ obscure the fact that the behavior is seen in other species, societies, and times and has to be understood within these broader contexts.

See also

• Child marriage
• Child sexuality
• Ephebophilia
• Pedophilia
• Nepiophilia
• Pederasty
• False allegation of child sexual abuse
• Child sexual abuse
• Child pornography