NCJ Number
105317
Journal
University of California Davis Law Review Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: (Fall 1984) Pages: 1-57
Date Published
1984
Length
57 pages
Annotation
Legal policy regarding sexual abuse of children, has undergone several changes with medical designations of this deviant behavior along with rehabilitative treatment being replaced by protection of society and offender punishment as the paramount concerns.
Abstract
In the 1930's, psychiatrists first called child molestation sexual psychopathy and helped formulate rehabilitative legislation. Psychiatrists were appointed by courts to analyze alleged perpetrators and to prescribe and monitor treatment. In the 1950's, psychiatrists, influenced by Kinsey's revelations of deviant sexual behavior, recommended that only serious offenders be treated. During the 1970's, social workers and psychiatrists emphasized the child victim and initiated counseling for the entire family. In the 1980's, psychiatrists, discredited by lawyers and civil libertarians, were curtailed by new laws against sexual assault, which employed not rehabilitation but punishment. The various labels attached to the act of child sexual abuse resulted in different legal consequences for the offender. 280 references.