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A review by danajacobs
The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Harm, Ending State Violence by Erica R. Meiners, Judith Levine
2.0
This book is both important and deeply flawed. I respect the authors’ attempt at tackling a difficult and incredibly emotionally charged topic, but the logical inconsistencies and, frankly, frightening lack of understanding of child development undermined the overall argument.
The strongest part of this book is the analysis of the sex offender registry and its overall ineffectiveness at preventing sexual harm. As someone who is relatively new to in depth structural analysis, this book genuinely made me question my biases towards the registry and come to a more nuanced understanding of the sex offender legal regime as a whole. The parts of the argument that draw from abolitionist arguments are certainly the strongest.
My major problem with this book is its overall lack of specific suggestions for solutions and its complete disregard for child development. I went into this desperately hoping for concrete, practical steps to create community-based solutions to prevent and address sexual harm. Part of my disappointment may be my fault for expecting something the book didn’t explicitly advertise, but it was disheartening that even in the chapter dedicated to solutions, each suggestion was incredibly vague. Nothing felt actionable or meaningful.
As a health care provider and someone with fairly extensive knowledge in childhood development, I was deeply unsettled by the arguments in this book that involved childhood sexuality. While children should absolutely be provided *developmentally appropriate* sex education, the notion that we should decriminalize child sexuality was honestly frightening. The example the authors provided was Dutch law legalizing sex between adolescents between 12-16, including with people above the age of majority, while allowing children who felt they were being exploited to report it. I was amazed that there was no critical lens brought into this example to note the difficulty in fully grown adults to recognize exploitation, let alone children with brains that are literally not fully developed. How can we expect a 12 year old to be able to navigate the incredibly complex emotional landscape of consenting to sex, fully understanding consent, and recognizing abuse or exploitation, especially by someone significantly older? At best, the example was sloppy, at worst, it was dangerous.
Also troubling was the emphasis the authors seemed to place on humanizing harm doers at all costs, while very rarely acknowledging the degree of the harm. There were very few instances where the authors explicitly state that sexual violence is a real problem and that it is deeply traumatizing for those who experience it. Rather, they emphasized many times that those who commit sexual harm are often abused themselves, and that those who experience harm have also caused it. This book really did not feel like it was truly grounded in a genuine acknowledgment of the degree of trauma that sexual harm can cause.
I unfortunately also have to question the depth of research in certain topics in this book. To write this from a feminist perspective AND uncritically include Laci Green as an example of online sex education betrayed either ignorance or sloppy researching.
Overall, I respect what the authors here were attempting, but the general tone of minimizing the experience of those who have been harmed in favor of the humanity of those who perpetuate harm left a very sour taste in my mouth.
The strongest part of this book is the analysis of the sex offender registry and its overall ineffectiveness at preventing sexual harm. As someone who is relatively new to in depth structural analysis, this book genuinely made me question my biases towards the registry and come to a more nuanced understanding of the sex offender legal regime as a whole. The parts of the argument that draw from abolitionist arguments are certainly the strongest.
My major problem with this book is its overall lack of specific suggestions for solutions and its complete disregard for child development. I went into this desperately hoping for concrete, practical steps to create community-based solutions to prevent and address sexual harm. Part of my disappointment may be my fault for expecting something the book didn’t explicitly advertise, but it was disheartening that even in the chapter dedicated to solutions, each suggestion was incredibly vague. Nothing felt actionable or meaningful.
As a health care provider and someone with fairly extensive knowledge in childhood development, I was deeply unsettled by the arguments in this book that involved childhood sexuality. While children should absolutely be provided *developmentally appropriate* sex education, the notion that we should decriminalize child sexuality was honestly frightening. The example the authors provided was Dutch law legalizing sex between adolescents between 12-16, including with people above the age of majority, while allowing children who felt they were being exploited to report it. I was amazed that there was no critical lens brought into this example to note the difficulty in fully grown adults to recognize exploitation, let alone children with brains that are literally not fully developed. How can we expect a 12 year old to be able to navigate the incredibly complex emotional landscape of consenting to sex, fully understanding consent, and recognizing abuse or exploitation, especially by someone significantly older? At best, the example was sloppy, at worst, it was dangerous.
Also troubling was the emphasis the authors seemed to place on humanizing harm doers at all costs, while very rarely acknowledging the degree of the harm. There were very few instances where the authors explicitly state that sexual violence is a real problem and that it is deeply traumatizing for those who experience it. Rather, they emphasized many times that those who commit sexual harm are often abused themselves, and that those who experience harm have also caused it. This book really did not feel like it was truly grounded in a genuine acknowledgment of the degree of trauma that sexual harm can cause.
I unfortunately also have to question the depth of research in certain topics in this book. To write this from a feminist perspective AND uncritically include Laci Green as an example of online sex education betrayed either ignorance or sloppy researching.
Overall, I respect what the authors here were attempting, but the general tone of minimizing the experience of those who have been harmed in favor of the humanity of those who perpetuate harm left a very sour taste in my mouth.