Open AccessTHE IMPACT OF LEGISLATION ON CHILDHOOD SEXUALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Author(s) -
Rushiella Songca,
Michelle Karels
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
obiter (port elizabeth. online)/obiter (port elizabeth)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2709-555X
pISSN - 1682-5853
DOI - 10.17159/obiter.v37i2.11535
Subject(s) - legislation , human sexuality , categorization , interpretation (philosophy) , subject (documents) , judicial interpretation , political science , gender studies , sociology , law , psychology , epistemology , linguistics , philosophy , library science , computer science
The purpose of this submission is two-fold. Firstly, it undertakes a socio-legal analysis of child sexuality and sexual behaviour. The goal of the analysis is to confront, albeit synoptically, common-held misperceptions, both legally and socially, on the subject of childhood sexuality. Secondly, the submission considers how legislation and judicial interpretation has responded to the expression of a child’s sexuality in South Africa. The legal and judicial analysis is centred on the categorization of age, and queries the wisdom of confining normal, non-deviant sexual development in terms of disparate age classifications as expressed in South African Legislation.