Unwanted Sex

Stephen J. Schulhofer is Julius Kreeger Professor of Law and Criminology and Director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the University of Chicago Law School.

• Preface Unchecked Abuses Disappointing Reforms Fear and Desire The Search for Solutions Feminist Conceptions/Judicial Innovations The Missing Entitlement: Sexual Autonomy Sexual Coercion: The Problem of Threats and Resistance Sexual Bargaining: Legitimate and Illegitimate Offers Supervisors and Teachers: The Problem of Power Psychiatrists and Psychologists: The Problem of Trust Doctors and Lawyers: The Problem of Professional Authority Dating: What Counts as Consent? Taking Sexual Autonomy Seriously Model Criminal Statute for Sexual Offenses Notes Index

[Schulhofer] leaves no stone unturned in addressing the question of how to create a law which will take seriously sexual autonomy—the right to choose freely whether and when to be sexually intimate with another person. He argues that unlike laws that provide for comprehensive protection for property rights, labour and other important interests, laws on sexual autonomy have failed: from the excessive degree of force needed for an action to be defined as rape, to the grey areas in which coercion and exploitation can be used to elicit a false, legally valid ‘consent’ between, for example, professionals—such as doctors, lecturers, lawyers and therapists and their clients or students. Schulhofer calls for a radical reconstruction of such laws [and] does not shirk difficult questions… This is an insightful and scholarly book written in an accessible style rarely encountered in law. Even rarer is Schulhofer’s willingness to debate feminist views in a balanced and enlightened way.