Children as ‘Risk'
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Children and Young People

Examines the social, legal and cultural challenges navigating the boundaries of 'normal'-'problematic'-'risky' sexual behaviours among peers.

Anne-Marie McAlinden (Author)

9781316507988, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 November 2020

372 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.553 kg

'... Children as 'Risk' is a superb monograph that I would recommend to others without hesitation. Indeed, while ostensibly produced for an (interdisciplinary) academic audience, I am convinced that practitioners and public policy-makers alike will benefit from reading McAlinden's analysis ...' Laura Bainbridge, The British Journal of Criminology

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.

Part I. The Theoretical and Policy Context: 1. Conceptualising children as 'risk: an introduction
2. Child sexual exploitation and abuse: a contemporary history of concerns
3. The social and political construction of sexual offending concerning children
Part II. Children As 'Risk': Children and Young People Who Display Harmful Sexual or Exploitative Behaviour: 4. The emergence of harmful sexual behaviour
5. Peer-to-peer grooming: a re-appraisal
6. The nature and scope of peer-to-peer exploitation and abuse: towards a typology of 'harm'
7. Legal and societal responses to 'risk'
Part III. Future Approaches: 8. Conclusion: re-imagining 'risk'.

Subject Areas: Criminal law & procedure [LNF], Criminology: legal aspects [LAR], Law & society [LAQ], Crime & criminology [JKV], Sexual abuse & harassment [JFFE2], Child abuse [JFFE1]