Children as 'Risk'

This book critically examines socio-political constructions of risk related to sexual offending behaviour by and among children and young people and charts the rise of harmful sexual or exploitative behaviour among peers drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks and primary research. Discussion of these behaviours is exhibited against a backdrop of the premature cultural sexualisation of contemporary childhood which challenges traditional conceptions of childhood victimhood and gendered sexual identities more broadly. It examines the complexities of peer-based sexual behaviours in a range of settings including within organisational contexts such as schools and care homes within families and peer-based relationships as well as online contexts including sexting and cyberbullying. It draws out the myriad legal practical and policy challenges of negotiating the boundaries between normal/experimental risky/problematic and harmful sexual behaviour and in particular the demarcation between coercion and consent both for professionals as well as children and young people themselves.