“I was thinking about the question you raised in response to a reader in your “Sterling Heights” post on 16-May: “I don’t understand how these alleged public servants think sex crimes and CSAM are no big deal.”
I don’t either, but I thought I’d ruminate for a minute about language. I’ve been collecting data on child abductions and attempted abductions in MI, 1965-1985, and I’m struck (not for the first time) by how the raw, brutal, demeaning act of child sexual assault is obfuscated by the language of the law, the media, and public discourse. “Indecent liberties,” “debauchery,” “moral offenses,” “taking advantage,” “gross indecency,” “indecent assault”–the terms are Victorian, even Biblical.
Even after the passage of 1974 PA266 in 1975 that revamped Michigan’s sexual assault laws, including the language and classification of offenses related to sexual assault, the obfuscation continues. In doing the research, I’ve read about kids who were “molested, but not raped,” “sexually assaulted, but not injured;” about kids who experienced “nonconsensual sex” or “had sex with the perpetrator,” as if young children can even give legal consent.
Language reflects the values and beliefs of culture, and our language about child sexual assault reflects a culture that does not want to make it easy to talk about sexual violence against children, let alone analyze it. At the same time, culture reflects language by giving meaning to words through the actions of its institutions, laws, customs, and traditions. So a change in one will result in a change in the other over time.
The change of the term “child pornography” into “child sexually abusive materials (CSAM)” is encouraging. Perhaps over time CSAM will be understood and treated for what it is—sexual abuse. But, sadly, it’s going to take more time than most of us have patience for.
I’ve attached a link to a thoughtful article on that issue by Mary Graw Leary, Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America. She’s much smarter than I am, but then she’d charge you tuition costs for listening to her—you got to read my email for nothing!
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/166/oa_edited_volume/chapter/1839691“