Childhood, sexuality and danger. On the iatrogenic nature of a speech

Abstract

In the last decades of the 20th century we have witnessed an unprecedented resurgence of the anxieties and alarms over the question of erotic experiences between minors and adults. This phenomenon, or widely disseminated under the now-universal concept of child abuse, has taken on some very special characteristics; indeed, one could say that there is a firmly established social and scientific discourse in which this subject is indisputably considered from the perspective of abuse, crime and suffering. After reviewing the fundamental characteristics of this terminology, the foundation and relevance of which will be questioned, we will analyze its possible iatrogenic effects —i.e. induced by social response and professional intervention—, in four key environments of social reality: the erotic dimension of the human being, individual responsibility, judicial punishment as a mechanism of social control, and the regulation of relationships between the sexes. Critical reflection is invited concerning the social and professional treatment of this phenomenon, especially regarding the undesirable effects that such treatment may unintentionally be generating.