Subject: The Sociology of Criminal Sexuality.
From: TR Young (tr@tryoung.com)
Date: Sun Jan 09 2000 - 07:03:11 CST
Several of our good colleagues on the Crit-l crim list have made comment on
sex offense and its location within critical criminology. There are
several points to be made which may be helpful to the task of critical
criminology.
1. For most of human history, human sexuality has been confined within
social relationships...any variance from acceptable social use of sexuality
has been defined as evil, corrupt, sinful and in the last 400 years,
violations of state law. State law on sexuality usually follows
prohibitions of major religions but not always.
2. A great many sexual patterns prohibited in one society are accepted in
another; sexual congress with young persons, homosexual relations,
institutionalized prostitution as well as cross-dressing has been widely
accepted across societies and history.
3. The sexuality of young persons varies greatly with the mode of
production; in primitive communal societies where families lived at the
edge of hunger and disease, the sexuality of young men and women began at
an early age as political ties and economic need dictated.
4. The sexuality of women become much more tightly restrained in agrarian
societies--some 4000 years ago or more--as a solution to the problem of
land transfer within family...birth children to outside males challenged
title to land...virginity and fidelity for women began to be tightly
restricted.
5. Pedophilia became proscribed by law as a new age category emerged out of
industrial capitalism...the short version is that reading, writing and math
became ever more central to the production of goods and services;
adolescence, as a age category, emerged. Persons over 14, then 16, then 18
and now 21 are confined to childhood until they finish preparation for the
labor market...and their sexuality was and is discouraged.
6. In mass, de-gendered societies, sexuality of children become of interest
to males with status problems...unable to embody the masculinity/machismo
of early societies...especially in relationships with competant adult
women, males find children satisfying sexual partners...in terms of status,
power and control issues...in ways not possible with independent adult women.
7. As children become net energy sinks (they use more goods than they
produce), children become economic liabilities. Social norms demanding
high birth rates and fecund females become archaic...female sexuality,
especially, becomes less confined to the production of children...and moral
codes about female sexuality change dramatically...in short, women are able
to act on their own sexuality in ways not permitted in agrarian societies.
In the USA, in 1999, the average female kissed 79 males before marriage; in
fundamental Christian, Muslim or Jewish society as well as in many Asian
relgions, she would not have kissed any. The same is true of both
pre-marital sex and extra-marital sex...not on in agrarian society with so
much concern with land use and land transfer across generations.
8. And, in a mass society with de-gendered production and distribution, the
family and/or heterosexual relationships become irrelevant to mode of
production; male and female homosexuality do not threaten the interests of
class elites or power elites. The de-gendering of production follows both
high tech production and high distribution...machines don't care who run
them; markets don't care who buys.
9. Children remain an age category needing special protection from adult
predators...parents, teachers, guardians and clergy occupy a trust
position; they require authority and social power over children in order to
help them become competent adults; use of authority and social power to
extract/extort sexual favors from children despoils the socialization
process...and is reprehensible to all except those who would solve their
own status panic at the expense of children they are supposed to protect.
Critical criminologists continue to be concerned with protection of
children from sexual predation.
10. Most societies have made ad hoc distinction between erotic and
pornographic materials which follow the uses of social and moral power;
erotic materials help celebrate sexuality within adult relationships;
pornographic materials are known by their emphasis on parts, power, and
perversion; that is to say, pornography reduce persons to body parts;
reduce human beings to objects of another's will; subvert cherished social
relationships to mere sexuality.
The restriction on pornography continues to be a concern for critical
criminology even if other sexual practices are not.
TR Young
TR Young, 8085 Essex
Weidman, Mi., 48893
Email: tr@tryoung.com
Visit the Red Feather website:
http://www.tryoung.com
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