The relationship of scientific research on human sexuality (sexology) to society's legal, judicial, and law enforcement systems (forensics) is the focus of this encyclopedic volume. Editors James J. Krivacska and John Money have assembled contributions by leading experts, covering a wide range of legal and medical issues pertaining to the interconnection between law and sexual behavior.
Section One examines the nature of paraphilic behavior and the social framework within which some of it becomes illegal. The topics discussed include sodomy, pedophilia, incest, sexual abuse, rape, exhibitionism, prostitution, and sexual harassment.
Section Two looks at current strategies for assessing the problems of sex offenders and victims. Among the areas addressed are "real" sexual abuse vs. "manufactured" allegations of abuse memories, allegations of satanism and ritual sexual abuse, and the difficulties of treating sex offenders within a legal framework.
The final section argues that sexology has much to contribute to the debate of the appropriate role of government in regulating the private sexual behavior of the citizenry. Sex education, contraception, abortion, AIDS, pornography, social tolerance vs. criminalization, and a comparative view of public sex policy in China and Russia are among the subjects reviewed.
