REVIEWS
“Work on the sexual harassment of teens has tended toward educators and therapists—not lawyers and policymakers—and Drobac shines a spotlight on an area of law that has received too little attention. Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers makes a strong case that can positively impact real teenagers’ lives and will convince readers of the woeful need for reform. It is indeed an enduring contribution.”
— Deborah Tuerkheimer, Northwestern University Law School
“Drobac’s Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers is deeply researched and written with passion. Much more than legal scholarship, this book is a must-read for anyone in the field who cares about protecting young women and teens.”
— Drew Altman, president and CEO, Kaiser Family Foundation
“In Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers, Drobac attacks her subject with a striking combination of scholarly rigor, innovative analysis, and passion for those treated badly first by predators and then by our legal system. She grounds her account in both data and personal accounts and unpacks the social and legal failures that can deny redress to the victims of exploitation. She draws on a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches, including the insights of neuroscience and developmental psychology. This book identifies the major problems, details the inadequate responses of the law, and proposes concrete changes to improve how we hold those responsible for the predation to account. It is the complete package.”
— Oliver Goodenough, Vermont Law School
“Drobac’s work is extremely original. She is one of the few legal scholars looking at adolescent brain development’s implications for sexual harassment law. Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers is an excellent contribution to the field, and it takes on an important issue that really has not been fully explored yet elsewhere.”
— Theresa Beiner, University of Arkansas, Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law
"Teenagers may be worldly but are not experienced in the ways of the world. Nowhere is this more apparent than in dealing with sexuality, especially the challenges posed by the sexual exploitation of teenagers. Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers is something of a guide for those who advise these teenagers and help steer them through problems they may encounter or, better yet, help reduce such encounters. The first and perhaps biggest problem is that the law is muddled and does not deal satisfactorily with the sexual exploitation of teenagers. A second problem is that well-meaning advisers are often confused. The book is a response to these problems. It is concrete—Drobac reviews findings from neuroscience and psychology to explain why teenagers are so vulnerable to sexual predators. She presents case studies illustrating various forms of exploitation and then merges the scientific findings with the case studies to provide thoughtful, useful advice on how to reconstruct the law and how to advise this vulnerable population. This book could usefully be in the library of every high school counselor and profitably read by parents and others entrusted with the care of kids."
— Choice
"In a fair, simple, and clearly well-researched manner, Drobac summarizes the key aspects of what makes adolescents who they are, how they stand in society, what makes them vulnerable in both psychological and legal contexts, and how adolescents are currently treated in the United States federal and state legal systems. Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers provides readers with passionate and strong arguments, in conjunction with contemporary, well-found research, for changing the current legal systems’ treatment of adolescents."
— Journal of Youth and Adolescence
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Introductions: Sara’s Case, Sexual Exploitation, and Legal Terms - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0001
[sexual exploitation, adolescents, sexual harassment law, statutory rape law, legal capacity, legal consent, legal assent]
This chapter introduces “Sara,” a teen revisited throughout the book. It details how her workplace supervisor sexually exploited her. It describes how other teenagers at work, at school, and in numerous other contexts experience sexual coercion by their adult mentors and supervisors. The chapter explains how the book addresses teen sexual exploitation in its successive chapters. It notes that adolescent psychosocial and neurobiological development influences the way teenagers cope with adult sexual advances. It suggests that state and federal, statutory and case law fail to protect teens adequately. In introducing the topic, this chapter defines key terms and cabins the discussion, explaining what the book does not cover. This chapter also reviews basic legal principals regarding capacity and consent. It introduces the notion of legal assent and distinguishes it from medical assent. It concludes that legal assent is one response among many available to ameliorate the sexual abuse of teenagers. (pages 1 - 14)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 2. Adolescent Worldliness: Sexual Harassment Targeting Teenagers - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0002
[hostile work environment, sex role stereotypes, sexual harassment at school, sexual harassment at work, street harassment, definitions, Title IX, Title VII]
This chapter identifies the scope and nature of the sexual harassment of teenagers at work, at school, and in other surroundings, such as at the mall, social and sports clubs, prisons, and in the military. It reveals disturbing statistics that sometimes incorporate harassment by peers (between teenagers); however, this chapter focuses on the abuse of power by adults who target teenagers. The chapter also examines sexually charged messaging and discriminatory situations, often called “hostile” work or school environments. It explores how many incidents of teen sexual harassment are not severe enough to meet thresholds required for legal remedies. However every incident contributes to a teenager’s ambient influences. These influences may reinforce harmful sex role stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes about women, girls, and disempowered minorities. This chapter summarizes important facts about the sexual harassment of teenagers in a variety of contexts. (pages 15 - 42)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 3. Adolescent Development: Wisdom Regarding Teen Capacity - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0003
[adolescent development, neurobiological development, psychosocial development, adolescent sexuality, sexual abuse, cognition, legal capacity, decision-making]
This chapter reviews the cutting-edge science of adolescent development and explains how teenagers, as a group, are different from mature adults. It explores adolescent neurobiological, psychosocial, and sexual maturation to determine whether teenagers have the legal capacity to opt for and handle sex with a work supervisor, a teacher, or another adult authority figure. It discusses how a teenager’s environment and experiences may influence the development of her brain. Distinguishing between cognition and other factors that influence decision-making, this chapter demonstrates that adolescents are not simply mini-adults. Chapter 3 provides the background for an evaluation of whether laws designed for adult targets can adequately protect juveniles and their “developing capacities.” Thus, Chapter 3’s review of adolescent development informs a discussion of the law that affects and purportedly protects teenagers. It answers the question of whether teenagers are developmentally different from adults; they are. (pages 43 - 75)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 4. Legal Treatment of Worldly Adolescents and Criminal Law Treatment of Unwise Adults - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0004
[statutory rape, consent, capacity, abortion, medical consent, sexual history, chastity defence, adolescent rights]
This chapter reviews the law’s treatment of teenagers, their “consent,” and traditional criminal law responses to the sexual abuse of women and adolescents. The U.S. criminal and civil legal systems have historically but inconsistently distinguished adolescents and adults. For example, juvenile criminal offenders are very rarely tried as adults. Similarly, juveniles should not have to accept full financial and civil responsibility for the consequences of “consensual” sex, which in many jurisdictions is labeled statutory rape. This book highlights conflicting criminal and civil laws, detailing the legal mixed message sent to adults and teenagers. While Chapter 5 focuses on the civil law response to sexual exploitation, this chapter covers the criminal law’s response to teenagers and their sexual abuse. This chapter begins the discussion of how criminal law treatment of “consent” influences civil law. It reveals that the law treats adolescent capacity inconsistently. There is no national standard. (pages 76 - 96)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 5. The Development of Civil Law’s Response to Worldly Women and Precocious Teenagers: Historical Wisdom or Oppressive Judgment? - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0005
[civil law, adolescent capacity, consent, personal injury claims, rule of sevens, negligence, misprision, writ of seduction, comparative fault, tort]
The civil system addresses personal injury, sexual exploitation, and “consent,” among other matters, through common law tort (personal injury) laws or more modern state statutory responses to human interactions. This chapter provides the civil law backdrop for the analysis of how adults, and especially jurists, might use the new information regarding adolescent development and psychosocial maturity. By comparing the varied traditional civil law approaches to juvenile behavior, this chapter reveals gross legal inconsistencies between criminal and civil law treatment of adolescent capacity and “consent.” Before one evaluates the efficacy of modern anti-discrimination statutes, most not designed to protect “consenting” teenagers, one should consider the development of civil common law rules that cover similar behavior. These common law claims highlight the importance of capacity and consent. They influenced the development of antidiscrimination law and, perhaps, reveal clues about how jurists exported some traditional and discriminatory attitudes to those new laws. (pages 97 - 112)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 6. Modern Worldly Wisdom? The Theoretical Foundations of Antidiscrimination and Sexual Exploitation Law - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0006
[traditional perspectives, liberal views, egalitarian views, mutuality perspective, pansexual perspective, sexual harassment legal theory, subordination, gender policing, Kantian ethics]
Chapter 6 reviews the theoretical underpinnings of sexual harassment law. The socio-legal regulation of sexual activity is not a new phenomenon; sex has been regulated since at least ancient times. Public policy and cultural perspectives concerning the regulation of sexuality evolved dramatically, however, over the twentieth-century. This chapter surveys historical attitudes concerning sexuality and various theoretical perspectives regarding equality. Traditional, liberal, egalitarian, mutuality, and pansexual perspectives all contribute foundational support for sexual harassment law. The various perspectives ignore or highlight whether the targets of sexual attention possess legal capacity. Particular attitudes regarding sexual activity also minimize or emphasize coercion, duress, deception, and physical violence. Chapter 6 compares theoretical justifications for law with the unique aspects of adolescent sexual abuse and the minors’ responses. This chapter highlights the disconnect between sexual harassment legal theory and the actual problems involving minors. (pages 113 - 138)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 7. Wising Up in the Workplace: Modern Antidiscrimination Law and Its Application - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0007
[Title VII, state fair employment practice statutes, affirmative defense, antidiscrimination law, consent, capacity, comparative fault, unwelcomeness]
Chapter 7 evaluates the efficacy of modern antidiscrimination law. It explains how Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act never contemplated juvenile workers. State fair employment practices statutes (FEPS) that often mirror Title VII also fail to address working minors. Under almost all of these statutes, a target’s consent to sex insulates the employer from liability. Because federal and state laws do not account for teen behavior, they prompt odd results in civil courts when jurists conflate adolescent developmental capacity with legal capacity and actual “consent” with legal consent. Antidiscrimination laws, originally implemented to foster equality, now must redress the intersectional biases, power imbalances, and corrupting manipulations of adults who target teenagers. This chapter examines public policy and the application of workplace antidiscrimination law. In particular, Chapter 7 examines the decision in one teenage male’s case to trace how and why the law fails to protect American adolescents adequately. (pages 139 - 158)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 8. The Evolution of Conflicting Law in California and Perhaps Beyond - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0008
[actual consent, legal consent, forcible rape, statutory rape, california law, situational offenders, preferential predators, child sexual abuse]
This chapter consolidates the information from prior chapters to examine the evolution of criminal and civil laws in California cases and how those laws often conflict in their treatment of adolescent “consent.” By examining the Starbucks and Donaldson Doe cases and additional case precedent, Chapter 8 highlights an evolutionary path that may be occurring in other states. It demonstrates how the American common law system preserves legal mutations that may disadvantage vulnerable teenagers. This chapter also shows how legal precedent from Title VII cases spills over into the Title IX jurisprudence discussed in Chapter 9. Chapter 8 discusses expert testimony regarding “consenting” teenagers in sex abuse cases. It introduces the distinction between adult situational offenders and preferential predators. Chapter 8 explains how, from California to New York, laws fail to protect minors and treat their “consent” inconsistently. (pages 159 - 184)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 9. Students Who “Lov’d Not Wisely but Too Well” and the Biases That Influence Adults in Judgment - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0009
[Title IX, Section 1983, school harassment, sex stereotypes, cultural attitudes, judicial bias, new legal process theory, deliberate indifference]
Chapter 9 extends the review of sexual harassment laws with the application of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to the sexual harassment by adults of teenagers at school. It considers recent U.S. Supreme Court and other case precedents to emphasize the weaknesses in Title IX and § 1983’s application. In particular, it describes the stricter standard for liability that juveniles must meet in Title IX cases. This chapter demonstrates how, in other respects, Title VII and FEPS precedents have infiltrated the legal treatment of the sexual abuse of teenagers at school to disadvantage minors. Looking beyond the schoolyard, however, this chapter examines how the law, science, and various contexts actually influence teen lives. Chapter 9 ends with a discussion of cultural stereotyping and judicial bias. It suggests that judicial attitudes have, in some cases, thwarted efforts to protect abused teenagers. (pages 185 - 211)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Chapter 10. Becoming Wiser: Public Policy, Developing Capacity, the Law, and Legal Assent - Jennifer Ann Drobac
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226301150.003.0010
[legal assent, revocation of consent, abrogation of consent, best interests of the child, age of consent, strict liability, legal reform, elders]
Chapter 10 explores legal reforms for sexual harassment law. It suggests “legal assent” as a substitute for adolescent “consent.” This proposal affords teenagers the chance to revoke their “consent” when an adult behaves abusively, takes unfair advantage, or breaches a duty owed to that minor. This approach contemplates that adults will treat minors with care, as would a fiduciary, and will refrain from sexual activity with minors. A minor’s revocation mimics the operation of traditional contract law defenses such as unconscionability, undue influence, and duress that work to invalidate contracts. Once the adolescent abrogates the assent and the court confirms the abrogation, a court must prohibit or exclude any further discussion of the original “consent.” Chapter 10 provides greater detail regarding this proposed legal reform. (pages 212 - 238)
This chapter is available at:
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Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Common Forms of Sexual Harassment
Appendix 2: Summary of State Juvenile Sex Crime Statutes
Notes
Index
