Sexual Abuse of Children: A Human Rights Perspective - Hardcover

Levesque, Roger J.R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253334713 ISBN 13: 9780253334718

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1999

Synopsis

"... this noteworthy book carefully examines the subtle and complex issues that should inform any discussion of child sexual abuse... This is compelling reading not only for child advocates and policymakers but for anyone interested in human rights." —Library Journal

How can international human rights law be used to help protect children at risk for sexual abuse? Should the definition of sexual abuse be allowed to differ among cultures? Should a country intervene in the internal workings of another with whom they disagree about approaches to the issue? What do notions of rights and law mean, and how could they be developed without placing more children at risk for abuse?

This book begins the process of addressing these and other issues as it considers how human rights law can help detail what could and should be done to protect children from sexual maltreatment. Roger Levesque places particular emphasis on the ways in which abusive activities in different countries and societies are linked with one another and the way diverse societal views of children place them at risk. Throughout, Levesque brings together several intersecting debates in social science and law, as he pragmatically considers human rights law as a tool for combatting child sexual maltreatment.

About this title

About the Author:

ROGER J.R. LEVESQUE, who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Indiana University, received a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and a PhD. in Cultural Psychology from the from the University of Chicago. He has published over 30 scholarly articles and book chapters that deal with human rights, children, and maltreatment, and is author of a forthcoming book, Adolescents, Sex, and the Law: Rethinking Rights for Changing Realities.

From Library Journal:

Although the words subtle and sexual abuse of children hardly seem to belong in the same sentence, this noteworthy book carefully examines the subtle and complex issues that should inform any discussion of child sexual abuse. Levesque (criminal justice, Indiana Univ.), a lawyer and a psychologist, has brought both perspectives to bear in previous work dealing with human rights, children, and maltreatment, and he does so again in this well-documented, finely argued book. How can certain behaviors be declared "inappropriate" within the widely varying cultures in which they occur? How can appropriate societal responses to these abuses be framed and executed? Levesque takes a global perspective, linking different kinds of maltreatment ("invisible acts") in various countries and different perceptions of childhood that put youngsters at particular risk from place to place. This is compelling reading not only for child advocates and policymakers but for anyone interested in human rights.AEllen Gilbert, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0253334713
• ISBN 13: 9780253334718
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368