Ryan Bingham: Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.
Up in the Air
Abstract
Those between 12 and 18 years of age are protected by Dutch criminal law against sexual contact. Based on criminal cases of sexually active youngsters this article will show that promiscuous teenage sexual activity poses some dilemmas for the just application of law enforcement operating on the basis of age limits. This relates to the fact that sexual contact with minors can be a crime regardless of whether the act can be qualified as consensual. Taking ‘consent’ as a starting point the focus will be on criminalizing sex with youngsters from the standpoint of the alleged victim, the alleged offender and society at large. What will be shown is that sex at an illegal age is much more likely to be authorized when the age discrepancy is trivial and when the act of sex is accompanied by an affective relationship over time. Most notably this poses some conflict for promiscuous sexual contact among youngsters exploring their sexual desires and consequently constituting a temporal relationship. After presenting a legal framework and analyzing some empirical data this article will offer some theoretical reflections on teenage sexual experimentation as linked to social conditions at a more abstract level. In conclusion it will be argued that the legal application of parameters controlling teenage sexual activity is done in order to preserve more than just the sexual integrity of a minor.
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Notes
What is more, since sex is a very private matter and has a very personal impact it has become the prominent site of the enormous inflation of the concept harassment. Within our culture, problems of insecurity seem to focus predominantly on personal safety, making sexual integrity the core of one’s precarious standing in the world (see Bauman 1995; Žižek 2008).
Ironically, using the same comparison like the one stated above by Brongersma but no longer in a ridicule fashion. See Liddle (1993) for a critique with regard to overly deterministic feminist approaches embracing an essentially predatory male sexuality.
Although both fall under the heading of ‘underage’, it is useful to make a distinction between prepubescent children and adolescents. The latter should not be treated a priori as asexual and can engage in autonomous sexual expression. Hence, for these minors the presence of sexuality as an external and alien force penetrating their sexual innocence can be misleading (see Gooren 2011a).
See R. Kool in Cleiren and Nijboer 2004, (T&C Sr), aant. 1 op artikelen 245, 247, 248 en 249 Sr, p. 1006-1031.
There are various penal codes with diverging age limits for lewd conduct with minors referring to different constellations. The most import ones are the sections 245/247 (<16 years of age) and 248a/249 (<18 years of age) of the Penal Code. It should be noted that in most cases the sections 245/247 of the Penal Code are relevant since these are more generic as opposed to 248a/249 of the Penal Code which require a relationship of some authority.
Thanks to one of the anonymous reviewers for pointing this out to me.
We are dealing here with sex devoid of intimacy. There are however numerous authors who argue that intimacy is in fact increasing and becoming more democratic because of social changes triggering this positive transformation (see for example Giddens 1992; Weeks 1998; Boutellier 2000). While Giddens’ notion of ‘confluent love’ is liberal democratic in nature, in my opinion the neoliberal notion of ‘detached sex’ is plausible as well. This is a far more pessimistic account of sexual relationships as for example expressed in the rather bleak novels of Michel Houellebecq. See also Jamieson (1999) for a powerful critique concerning Giddens’ affirmations. She argues such a stance tends to individualize social problems thereby sustaining old gender inequalities.
It should be noted however that even within longstanding committed relationships sex can definitely have instrumental qualities in that it is an exchange value. On sex as leverage between spouses see Bergman’s masterpiece Scenes from a Marriage.
For an interesting take on how such a negation disadvantages girls within the context of date rape see Bryan and Wallbank (2004).
Interestingly enough, sexual relationships that are characterized by too much love are also believed to have run amok (“amour fou” as a hazard). This is often the case in those relationships with huge age discrepancies characterized by enormous intensity due to the passion accompanying puppy love. Therefore, too much love is suspect as well.
Illustrative of the encompassing label lewd, these features are the exact reverse of another form of ‘classic’ lewd conduct, namely, incest between father and daughter (Section 249 Penal Code). There we are dealing with high-investment and long lasting contact with someone familiar.
Is a paedophilic relationship not unsustainability par excellence? Sooner or later the object of desire will mature, effectively ending the relationship.
See the documentary series for Dutch television made in 2008 by Ingeborg Beugel under the heading Geloof, seks and (wan)hoop 2.
It is thus possible that many women view non-consensual sex with an acquaintance as extreme seduction rather than as rape (or lewd conduct) (ibid.).
In hindsight feelings at the times can be ascribed to a condition of puppy love and authorities might view the inherent temporality of this phase as pathological.
As Howitt writes (1995: 176): “Grooming … is the steps taken by paedophiles to “entrap” their victims and is in some way analogous to adult courtship (cursive JG)”.
For ways to circumvent such a totalizing discourse and allow for diversity see the theoretical elaborations by Milovanovic (1992; 2007). For an illuminating overview of the historical debates surrounding the regulation of sexual behavior see McGlynn and Ward (2009) who distinguish a moral, a feminist and a liberal position with regard to pornography.
One might accuse me for focusing more on the offender than on the victim. It is important to remind however that criminal law is first and foremost offender based and since it is a ultimum remedium it should be scrutinized from that point of view. This of course does not mean that victims should not be protected or that victimhood should be limited to a status only accorded by criminal law. There is definitely a lot of extralegal work to be done in the field of teenage sexual activity and the far more vulnerable positions occupied by girls in this respect.
Although it should be acknowledged in late modern Western society, even among youngsters, sexual morality is highly plural and fragmented (about this late modern condition in general see Young 2011: 96) and ranges from puritan to hedonistic. As mentioned earlier, the discourse of criminal law is however dominant, exclusive rejective towards this diversity.
Illouz (2010) argues that the state is most effective in reorganizing romantic relationships through the use of cultural categories such as “power”, “reciprocity” and “equality” driving them to become predictable and controllable. The criminalization of underage sex thus serves to control not only youth but also sexual relationships.
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The author wishes to thank Roberto Refinetti and the anonymous reviewers of Sexuality & Culture for their helpful comments.
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Gooren, J. ‘Pre-adults’ Having ‘Casual’ Sex with No Strings Attached? Teenage Sexual Activity and Dutch Criminal Law. Sexuality & Culture 18, 257–278 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-013-9195-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-013-9195-0