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Defining, Excusing, and Justifying Deviance: Teen Mothers' Accounts for Statutory Rape
Author(s) -
Higginson Joanna Gregson
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1016/s0195-6086(99)80002-2
Subject(s) - deviance (statistics) , statutory law , criminology , psychology , social psychology , sociology , law , political science , mathematics , statistics
This article examines the excuses and justifications used by teenage mothers to account for their involvement with older boyfriends. Data were gathered during a three‐year participant‐observation study of mothers enrolled in a high school program for adolescent parents. The teens who used justifications argued that their consent made their relationships non‐deviant, and felt that they should not be construed as statutory rape offenses. The teens who used excuses perceived themselves as victims of their older boyfriends, and believed that statutory rape laws should be enforced with more regularity. As their relationships ended, the women who initially used justifications often shifted to excuses, directing the blame away from themselves and toward their boyfriends.