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

By Stephen J. Schulhofer

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674576489
• ISBN13: 9780674576483
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Splendid Must-Read

"Unwanted Sex" explains, in clear and understandable language, how limited is women's (and men's ) legal protection from unwanted sex. Schulhofer shows that rape laws in almost all states STILL require actual physical force or the immediate threat of it: other forms of coercion are okay! Amazing. He convincingly debunks the claims of Camille Paglia, Katie Roiphe and Christina Hoff Sommers that the law indulges weak-willed women, criminalizes 'bad sex" and so forth. I recommend "Unwanted Sex" to anyone who wants to understand rape law and the ongoing debate around it.

It's all about Consent.

I heard Professor Schulhofer present this book a few months back at the University of Chicago. Within it, he explains that our sexual assault laws are *not* founded on notions of consent, despite widespread popular beliefs to the contrary.Schulhofer argues that our laws must do a better job of protecting sexual assault victims, and that by focusing on autonomy (and not force or even requirements of affirmative resistance), we can better protect potential victims of sexual assault. It's a hard argument, because consent can be extremely difficult to prove, or even know at the time of the interaction, but Schulhofer confronts those difficulties directly and helpfully.