The Age of Consent

MATTHEW WAITES is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK. He has published a variety of articles on young people's sexuality and lesbian, gay and bisexual politics in the UK, and is co-editor, with Jeffrey Weeks and Janet Holland, of Sexualities and Society: A Reader (2003).

Acknowledgements 1: INTRODUCTION Outline of Chapters 2: THEORISING AGE OF CONSENT LAWS Childhood and Youth Gender and Sexuality; Heterosexuality and Homosexuality The Meaning of Consent Children, Sexuality, Consent and the Law Consent and Children's Sexual Behaviour The Rationale for Age of Consent Laws Citizenship Sexual Citizenship Conclusion 3: AGE OF CONSENT LAWS IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE The Globalisation of Age of Consent Debates Age of Consent Laws in Comparative Cross-National Perspective Sex Tourism and the Transnational Extension of Sex Offences International Law and Human Rights Conclusion 4: HETEROSEXUALITY AND THE AGE OF CONSENT The Origins of Law on Childhood and Sex in the UK Social Purity and the Age of Consent in the Late Nineteenth Century Gender, Class, Competence and Citizenship Parliamentary Debates The Age of Protection The Regulation of Male Homosexuality Conclusion 5: HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE AGE OF CONSENT Lesbianism and the Age of Consent in the Inter-War Years The Wolfenden Report and the Decriminalisation of Male Homosexuality Rethinking the Wolfenden Report's Rationale of Decriminalisation The Male Homosexual Age of Consent Conclusion 6: SEXUAL LIBERATIONISM AND THE SEARCH FOR NEW SEXUAL KNOWLEDGE New Social Movements and Epistemological Transformations Gay Liberation: Liberty, Equality and the Age of Consent From the Margins to the Mainstream: Emerging Challenges The Policy Advisory Committee on Sexual Offences Heterosexuality and the Age of Consent to Sexual Intercourse Homosexuality Conclusion 7: EQUALITY AT LAST? AGE OF CONSENT DEBATES IN THE 1990s Age of Consent Debates 1993-2000: An Overview Legal Developments: Childhood and Consent The Emergence of a New Hegemony in Age of Consent Debates Political Discourses Legal Discourses Social Policy, Health and Young People's Welfare Biomedical Knowledge of Sexual Identity and Psychological Development Conclusion 8: NEW AGE OF CONSENT LAWS: ADULTHOOD AND CHILDHOOD The Home Office Review of Sex Offences 'Adult Sexual Abuse of a Child' 'Child Sex Offences Committed by Children or Young Persons' Consent in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 Conclusion 9: RETHINKING THE AGE OF CONSENT The History of Age of Consent Laws in the UK The Contemporary Context Young People's Views of Age of Consent Laws Citizenship, Sexuality and Childhood Libertarian and Liberal Critiques of Age of Consent Laws Youth Justice Consent and Vulnerability A Proposal for Reform of the Age of Consent Bibliography Notes Index