http://www.drthrockmorton.com/article.asp?id=132
David Blakeslee, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Lake Oswego, OR
[email protected]
from Should Science Help Manufacture Excuses for Exploitation?
"Sadly, it reminded me of a scientific journal article I had recently read assessing the long term effects of “age discrepant” sex on children (The Journal of Sex Research, Volume 41, Number 4, pp 381-389). For the reader, “age discrepant” means sex between children whose average age is 11 and an adult whose average age is 24. The social scientists concluded that “only half of our participants experienced these events as negative as a child, in sharp contrast to the current conceptualization of Child Sexual Abuse as uniformly negative…empirical evidence indicates that age-discrepant childhood sexual experiences are not necessarily harmful…These sexual experiences may provide these adolescents [wrong word: age range of the study is from 2-17] with the opportunity to explore their sexuality and feel affirmed by the community…”