"The Emergence of the Child as an Object of Sexual Protection in Scots law c. 1945-present."
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Law
Abstract
"The Criminalisation of Sexual Offences Against Children in England and Scotland from the 19th Century"
Organisations
| Description | I have been undertaking my PhD research for approximately 18 months. I have principally focussed my project on explaining the way in which 'the child' has emerged as an object of sexual protection in criminal law. Doing so, I seek to explain the way in which sexual offences against children have developed over time, their aims, and their functions. This approach means the key aim of my work was to reveal many of the unseen dynamics that have occurred over time and resulted in the current range of offences and orders engaged in the protection of children. To date, I have made several key finding, summarized below: 1. Substantively, 'the child' as protected by the criminal law in this area is not demarcated only by age relative to adults, but by several other characteristics that underpin the nature of the sexual wrong interpreted by the law. 2. In particular, gender is an important feature of the protection of the child. Female children are protected from a variety of sexual wrongs related to males of increased age in a different manner than males However, it is often stated that male children were not historically as qualitatively well protected as female children from sexual offending. My research has highlighted male children were often afforded significant protection in certain circumstances, in particular, protection from behaviour associated with homosexuality. 3. Heterosexuality and homosexuality, differing perceptions on what are desirable versions of each of these sexualities alter the manner in which the child is understood and the manner in which sexual harms against him or her are understood. 4. Methodologically, I have developed insights into historical studies of law supported by social theory. In this regard, I have sought to highlight the distinctive institutional value of criminal law while noting its connection to wider institutions and bodies of knowledge in the social world. 5. This has lead to my finding that the growth and development of official statistics, criminal justice organisation, and wider state administrative bodies, have made an important and distinctive impact on the way in which the child, and sexual wrongs against the child, are understood and developed by the criminal law. 6. I have found that even in present-day criminal law many prima facie sexual offences against children are dealt with using non-sexual offences, such as public order offences. This can be explained by my findings, as a result of the specific nature and work of the criminal law as shaped by its social context. Moreover, it is in itself a finding and highlights that protection of particular children in certain distinctive circumstances that point to new understandings of sexual wrongs that have not otherwise been outlined in research. 7. My methodology has provided new insights into supposed 'change' in the history of sexual offending against children. In the latter part of the 20th-century sexual liberation is widely seen to have included prominent calls for the age of consent to be reduced significantly and the growth and support of paedophilia. By the latter part of the 1970s and in the 1980s these sexually liberal calls were seen as exceptional, as renewed and hardened perceptions of child abuse grew. Many scholars consider this 'change' to be a result of factors such as child abuse scandals and the rise of feminist liberation lobbying. My work has contended that original activism for reduced consent and paedophilia were outliers and symptomatic of general sexual liberation, the sentiments were not matched in the criminal law which continued to afford increased protection to a wide range of children. Greater and more explicit sexual offences protection that arose later were a result of legislative processes that addressed the evolving problem of child abuse. As such, the specifically institutional quality of the criminal law that I draw upon explains this time period as one of continuity; rather than change. |
| Exploitation Route | My current outcomes can be taken forward and put to use tangibly and intangibly, by a range of sectors. Given the novelty of my study, it is of significant value to the discipline of criminal law, in many anglophone jurisdictions beyond the UK, including Australia. The insights I have made to date have already started to become integrated into criminal law teaching at my host institution. My findings are of significant utility to criminal law practitioners as well as legal scholarship, as has been evidenced by my ability to produce high-quality reviews of case law that connects new findings to the wider prosecutorial practice. My work has been relied upon in upcoming texts aimed at practitioners such as Connelly, Convery and Keane's upcoming text 'Sexual Offences and Scots Law' (W Green, release date: Sept 2020). My findings are also cross-disciplinary and have relevance for those undertaking legal histories or sociological studies. My methodology as developed is of particular relevance here, as it is highly transferrable. In terms of an impact upon policy, my findings are of relevance to the development of sexual offences against children which remain continually upon the policy and social agenda. Furthermore, my research connects many aspects of the wider policy background to the development of sexual offences and has relevance on government decisionmaking surrounding relevant administrative bodies such as public inquiries. My work has explicitly sought to undertake an informed analysis of official statistics. It has critically explored the connection between technology, organisations, and the law in the development and change of official statistics. As such, its findings are of relevance to those working within statistics to create variables for measurement or develop questionnaires for the collection of information related to these. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.3366/elr.2019.0582 |
| Description | As stated in my previous section, y research findings are of continued and evident use to those in criminal legal practise, policymaking, and technological development of official statistics. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |