Jennifer Drobac: Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers: Adolescent Development, Discrimination, and Consent Law

Abstract

In Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers: Adolescent Development, Discrimination and Consent Law, Jennifer Drobac delivers arguments and suggestions for change in this controversial field. In a fair, simple, and clearly well-researched manner, Drobac summarizes the key aspects of what makes adolescents who they are, how they stand in society, what makes them vulnerable in both psychological and legal contexts, and how adolescents are currently treated in the United States federal and state legal systems. Utilizing contemporary research in the fields of adolescent psychology and jurisprudence, Drobac connects presently flawed federal and state statutes, in combination with state and federal case law, to these subjects to further strengthen the many arguments found throughout the book. Also, Drobac’s use of tragic, yet very real, situations of adolescents who have been sexually exploited by their work supervisor, school teacher, or family relative, breathes life into her argument and leaves an impression on the reader that these situations are very real and sadly occur quite frequently. In the introduction, Drobac draws the reader into the sad reality of sexual exploitation of teenagers by telling the audience how a girl named Sara was sexually abused by her work supervisor, a registered sex offender. She then follows this story with an outline of how the book is planned out and gives definitions of common legal terms used throughout the book. The given outline delineates how Chapter Two will explain how adolescents face more situations of sexual harassment in work/school then adults, Chapter Three describes adolescent psychological development and how this development distinguishes them from adults, and Chapters 4–9 describes historical current United States criminal and civil law and how the two differentiate in certain instances. In essence, the book offers more factual information in the first six chapters, but hints at arguments for change throughout. Chapters 7–9 focus more on antidiscrimination laws and how they unfairly and inconsistently treat adolescents. The book then concludes with Drobac offering more policy suggestions and improvements on how to treat adolescents more fairly in both criminal and civil domains. Throughout reading the book, one could state the main argument of her book is that there needs to be a change in the current system in order to ensure adolescents’ safety at work, school, and home and consistency throughout the legal system for adolescents. This includes reforming strict liability statutes, consent and legal capacity laws, civil tort reform, and possibly introducing legal assent instead of consent for adolescents. Chapter One, ‘‘Introductions: Sara’s Case, Sexual Exploitation and Legal Terms’’ tells the chilling story of Sara. Sara, a 15 year old, worked at a movie theatre supervised by an individual named Michael Cosio. Over the ensuing years, Cosio bought Sara gifts, gave her cash, and listened to her problems. Cosio began to make sexual advances toward Sara, to which Sara eventually acquiesced or as one could possibly argue ‘‘consented.’’ In order to get Sara to submit to his sexual advances, Cosio told Sara he had a brain tumor. Cosio’s conduct then turned hostile, becoming verbally abusive and threatening to release the details of their relationship to her family. As a consequence of this relationship, Sara experienced academic and emotional deterioration. As a result, her parents suspected something was wrong. Sara opened up and told her parents about Cosio and confided in them. Cosio was then prosecuted under the California criminal code. The story Drobac tells about Sara effectively introduces the reader to the & Jacob E. Hawkins jaedhawk@indiana.edu