Abstract
What is an ‘age of consent’, and how does it contribute to defining and regulating sexual life? Contemporary public debates, such as those surrounding attempts to lower the male homosexual ‘age of consent’ during 1998–9, often ignore even the recent history of this shifting concept. This chapter explores changing understandings of the ‘age of consent’ in the United Kingdom from a historical perspective. It discusses several periods when political debates and changes to the law have restructured definitions of the ‘age of consent’, and explores the forms of power and resistance which have shaped the law and social attitudes. It then moves on to explore how the meaning of the age of consent is currently being contested, and signals how the concept might be rethought in the light of developments in social and political theory, particularly in relation to changing understandings of ‘citizenship’. The chapter concludes by examining whether recent developments support claims that sexuality is becoming more democratically negotiated. It argues that the evidence is complex and contradictory, demanding an analysis which is sensitive to gendered attitudes, a complex legal context and the variety of forms of sexual behaviour. Nevertheless, changing understandings of the relationship between sexuality, consent and citizenship are apparent.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Archard, D. (1998) Sexual Consent (Oxford: Westview Press).
Birkett, D. (1997) ‘Monsters with Human Faces’, Guardian Weekend, Saturday 27 September 1997, pp. 22–30.
Bland, L. (1995) Banishing the Beast: English Feminism and Sexual Morality, 1885–1914 (London: Penguin).
Bronitt, S. (1994) ‘Spreading Disease and the Criminal Law’, Criminal Law Review, no. 21.
Bulmer, M. and Rees, A. M. (eds) (1996) Citizenship Today: The Contemporary Relevance of T. H. Marshall (London: UCL Press).
Connell, R. W. (1995) Masculinities (Cambridge: Polity).
Edwards, A. (1996) ‘Gender and Sexuality in the Social Construction of Rape and Consensual Sex: a Study of Process and Outcome in Six Recent Rape Trials’, in J. Holland and L. Adkins (eds), Sex, Sensibility and the Gendered Body (London: Macmillan), pp. 178–201.
Evans, D. (1993) Sexual Citizenship: The Material Construction of Sexualities (London: Routledge).
Finch, J. (1986) ‘Age’, in R. G. Burgess (ed.), Key Variables in Social Investigation (London: Routledge), pp. 12–30.
Giddens, A. (1992) The Transformation of Intimacy (Cambridge: Polity).
Greenwood, V. and Young, J. (1980) ‘Ghettoes of Freedom: an Examination of Permissiveness’, in National Deviancy Conference (ed.), Permissiveness and Control: The Fate of the Sixties Legislation (London: Macmillan), pp. 149–74.
Grey, A. (1992) Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation (London: Sinclair-Stevenson).
Hall, S. (1980) ‘Reformism and the Legislation of Consent’, in National Deviancy Conference (ed.), Permissiveness and Control: The Fate of the Sixties Legislation (London: Macmillan), pp. 1–43.
Hauser, R. (1962) The Homosexual Society (London: Bodley Head).
Higgins, P. (1996) Heterosexual Dictatorship: Male Homosexuality in Post-War Britain (London: Fourth Estate).
Jackson, S. (1982) Childhood and Sexuality (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).
James, A., Jenks, C. and Prout, A. (1998) Theorizing Childhood (Cambridge: Polity).
Jamieson, L. (1996) ‘The Social Construction of Consent Revisited’, in L. Adkins and V. Merchant (eds), Sexualizing the Social: Power and the Organisation of Sexuality (London: Macmillan), pp. 55–73.
Jeffery-Poulter, S. (1991) Peers, Queers and Commons: The Struggle for Gay Law Reform from 1950 to the Present (London: Routledge).
Katz, J. N. (1995) The Invention of Heterosexuality (London: Penguin).
Kymlicka, W. (1990) Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Lansdown, G. (1995) Taking Part: Children’s Participation in Decision Making (London: Institute for Public Policy Research).
Law Commission (1995) Consent in the Criminal Law, consultation paper no. 139 (London: HMSO).
Lister, R. (1997) Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives (London: Macmillan).
Marshall, T. H. (1950) ‘Citizenship and Social Class’ and other Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Meehan, E. (1995) ‘Citizenship and the European Union’, Contemporary Politics, 1(2), p. 139.
Moran, L. J. (1995) ‘The Homosexualization of English Law’, in D. Herman and C. Stychin (eds), Legal Inversions: Lesbians, Gay Men and the Politics of Law (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press), pp. 3–28.
Moran, L. J. (1996) The Homosexual(ity) of Law (London: Routledge).
Moran, L. J. (1997) ‘Enacting Intimacy’, Studies in Law, Politics and Society, 16, pp. 255–74.
Mort, F. (1987) Dangerous Sexualities: Medico-Moral Politics in England since 1830 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
NAMBLA: North American Man-Boy Love Association (1980) ‘The Case for Abolishing the Age of Consent Laws’, in M. Blasius and S. Phelan (eds), We Are Everywhere: Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics (London: Routledge), pp. 459–68.
Plummer, K. (1995) Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds (London: Routledge).
Policy Advisory Committee on Sexual Offences (1981) Report on the Age of Consent in Relation to Sexual Offences, Cmnd 8216 (London: HMSO).
Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, Cmnd 247 (1957) (London: HMSO)
Richardson, D. (1998) ‘Sexuality and Citizenship’, Sociology, 32(1), pp. 83–100.
Ryback, T. W. (1997) ‘Crying out Loud’, Independent Magazine, reprinted from the New York Times Magazine, Saturday 15 March 1997, pp. 26–30.
Sandfort, T., Brongersma, E., and Naerssen, A. van (eds) (1990), Special Issue of Journal of Homosexuality: Male Intergenerational Intimacy: Historical, Social-Psychological, and Legal Perspectives, 20(1/2) (New York: Haworth Press).
Schofield, G. and Thoburn, J. (1996) Child Protection: The Voice of the Child in Decision Making (London: Institute for Public Policy Research).
Seidman, S. (1996) Queer Theory/Sociology (Oxford: Blackwell).
Smart, C. (1995) Law, Crime and Sexuality: Essays in Feminism (London: Sage).
Stonewall (1993a) Age of Consent Briefing, unpublished paper (London: Stonewall).
Stonewall (1993b) The Case for Change: Arguments for an Equal Age of Consent (London: Stonewall).
Stonewall (1997) ‘Legislation Round-up’, Stonewall Newsletter, 5(2), April 1997: p. 6.
Stychin, C. F. (1995) Law’s Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (London: Routledge).
Tatchell, P. (1992) Europe in the Pink: Lesbian and Gay Equality in the New Europe (London: Gay Men’s Press).
Thompson, B. (1994) Sadomasochism (London: Cassell).
Turner, B. (ed.) (1993) Citizenship and Social Theory (London: Sage).
Turner, B. (1997) ‘Citizenship Studies: a General Theory’, Citizenship Studies, 1(1), February 1997, pp. 5–18.
Waites, M. (1995) ‘The Age of Consent Debate: a Critical Analysis’, unpublished dissertation submitted for MA Sociology of Culture to Department of Sociology, University of Essex.
Waites, M. (1996) ‘Lesbian and Gay Theory, Sexuality and Citizenship’, Contemporary Politics, 2(3), Autumn, pp. 139–149.
Waites, M. (1997) ‘Rethinking (Homo)Sexual Citizenship in the UK: the 1957 Wolfenden Report — Decriminalization and the “Permissive Moment”’, unpublished paper delivered at the European Sociology Association Conference, University of Essex, 27–30 August 1997.
Walby, S. (1994) ‘Is Citizenship Gendered?’, Sociology, 24(2), pp. 379–95.
Walkowitz, J. (1980) Prostitution and Victorian Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Walkowitz, J. (1992) City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late Victorian London (London: Virago).
Weeks, J. (1977) Coming Out: Homosexual Politics in Britain from the Nineteenth Century to the Present (London: Quartet).
Weeks, J. (1985) Sexuality and its Discontents: Meanings, Myths and Modern Sexualities (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Weeks, J. (1989) Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800, 2nd edn (London: Longman).
Werbner, P., Yuval-Davis, N., Crowley, H. and Lewis, G. (1997) Feminist Review, Citizenship: Pushing the Boundaries, no. 57, Autumn.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1999 British Sociological Association
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Waites, M. (1999). The Age of Consent and Sexual Citizenship in the United Kingdom: a History. In: Seymour, J., Bagguley, P. (eds) Relating Intimacies. Explorations in Sociology. British Sociological Association Conference Volume Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27683-7_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27683-7_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-74764-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-27683-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)