Unwanted Sex: The Culture of Intimidation and the Failure of Law

by Stephen J. Schulhofer

Despite three decades of intense scrutiny and repeated attempts at ambitious reform, our laws against rape and sexual harassment still fail to protect women from sexual overreaching and abuse. What went wrong? In this original, provocative, and enlightening work, Stephen Schulhofer, a distinguished scholar in criminal law, shows the need to refocus our laws against rape and to create a new system of legal safeguards against interference with sexual autonomy. Our laws provide comprehensive protection for property rights, labor, and other important interests, but sexual autonomy--the right to choose freely whether and when to be sexually intimate with another person--is devalued and ignored. With vivid examples, including stranger assaults, date rapes, and sexual encounters between job supervisors and subordinates, teachers and students, doctors and patients, lawyers and clients, Schulhofer shows that recent reforms of rape and sexual harassment law are overrated and inadequate. From the excessive degree of force necessary for an aggressive action to be defined as rape, to the gray areas in which coercion and exploitation can be used to elicit a false but legally valid "consent," Schulhofer offers a clear analysis of the limits of current standards. His proposals for a radically different approach hold the promise of genuine respect and effective protection for the sexual autonomy of both women and men. It is an ambitious yet sensible vision, committed to allowing willing partners to seek consensual relationships, while fully protecting each person's right to refuse sexual encounters that are not genuinely desired.

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 1998

Reviews

[Pavlo]

"Respect for autonomy requires protecting our freedom to refuse sexual contact, but it also requires protecting our freedom to seek emotional intimacy and sexual fulfillment with willing partners. Stringent safeguards that fully protect sexual autonomy for one person can easily destroy it for another.

Existing laws resolve this dilemma by placing virtually no restriction on assertive male sexuality, so long as it steers clear of physical violence. They leave all of us, and women especially, unprotected against coercive sexual abuses that any decent society should consider morally wrong and legally intolerable. My hope is to show, through a close examination of threats, coercive "offers," and abuses of power, trust, and professional authority, that we can do better, that sexual autonomy can be and must be protected and supported by law."

I read parts of this for a class about two decades ago, wanted to come back to it now.