Controversial author discusses child sexuality

Author Judith Levine

Age-of-consent laws in the United States should do a better job of acknowledging the legitimate sexual desires of children and adolescents, argued Judith Levine, the controversial author of Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex, during a lecture last week at USC Law.

Levine spoke on the subject of “Crimes of Passion: Statutory Rape and the Ambiguities of Sexual Consent,” and suggested that sexual relations between minors and adults are not necessarily exploitive or traumatic to the younger party. She said age-of-consent laws, which date back to 13th-century British law, have become increasingly narrow and punitive even as children are maturing faster than ever.

In response, USC Law Professor Tom Lyon, while acknowledging that there may be some overreaction to sex crimes, emphasized that “sexual abuse is a serious problem” and that what may seem like consent is really the result of “seductive techniques (by perpetrators) to win the child’s trust.”

Levine argued, however, that current laws deny young adults the right to be sexual and self-determining even when they make reasonable, consenting decisions. To add to the confusion, the age of consent varies widely from state to state, she said.

“Legally designating a class of people categorically unable to consent to sexual relations is not the best way to protect children, particularly when ‘children’ defines everybody between 0 and 18,” Levine said in her lecture, which was sponsored by USC’s Center for Law, History and Culture. “Any law we have needs to balance the sexual autonomy of children and parents’ need to protect kids from exploitation.”

USC English professor and cultural critic James Kincaid, who also provided commentary on Levine’s talk, said the same societal trend which rejects the sexual desires of young people also may deny them genuine love and affection.