Leslie Margolin

When a kiss is not just a kiss: relating violations of consent in kissing to rape myth acceptance

This study examined the relationship rape attitudes have to violations of consent in kissing. We found that the association between rape myth acceptance and responses to violations of consent in kissing was significant regardless of whether these violations took place within the context of a first date, long-term dating, or marriage. We also found that male subjects had higher rape myth acceptance than females and were more supportive of a mans right to violate a womans consent in kissing. Finally, the association between gender and responses to forced kissing was significant independent of the context in which the forced kiss occurred.

Naming Gifted Children: An Example of Unintended “Reproduction”

We asked classroom teachers from two middle schools in a Midwestern community (the teachers were Anglo-American but were teaching a sizable Latino minority) to recommend students for a temporary program for the “gifted.” Although teachers were given no guidelines for selection, they had no trouble discussing “giftedness” as a concept; nor did they have difficulty identifying “gifted” children. Their language revealed that they used the existing ideals and moralities of the dominant culture as their guide in assessing childrens giftedness. Latino children, and those from other minority groups, were passed over. Nowhere in the discussion of “giftedness” did the teachers consider that their criteria for “excellence,” “talent,” and “ability” were culturally determined. Instead, teachers treated “giftedness” as if it were absolute, universally agreed upon, transcontextual and transcultural. These results show that vigorous and creative teacher education is needed to ensure proportionate representation of nonmainstream cultural groups in selective programs, and that teachers, who are often vocally opposed to social and educational inequities, unwittingly support the existing social order.

A Pedagogy of Privilege

In this essay, I argue that gifted education is the flip side of the “pedagogy of the oppressed”; that it is a strategy to single out the children of the affluent for training in leadership and dominance. Contrary to stereotypes usually associated with gifted education, this pedagogy is not characterized by academic rigor but is organized around the personal and social traits associated with the gifted themselves.

Child abuse by adolescent caregivers

The purpose of this analysis was to estimate the frequency and severity of child abuse committed by adolescents who were in nonparental caregiving roles. The sample was composed of cases in which either physical or sexual abuse was substantiated through child welfare investigation. The main comparisons were between adolescent and adult caregivers. While caregiver age did not appear to have a consistent effect on the occurrence of physical abuse, notable differences between adolescents and adults were found in the area of sexual abuse. Not only were adolescents observed to commit substantially more sexual abuse than older caregiver cohorts, but the sexual abuse they committed was more likely to involve intercourse and physical assault. These findings have implications for future research and practice.

Deviance on Record: Techniques for Labeling Child Abusers in Official Documents

An analysis of 120 official records was done to show how social workers “prove” that someone committed child abuse. That more than half of the suspects either denied the accusations or were not interviewed in the course of investigations was not much of a limitation, since suspects were routinely defined as “non-credible” witnesses. The only time their testimony was taken seriously was when they agreed with the allegations. Conversely, victims were routinely seen as “credible”witnesses, and their testimony was only rejected when they claimed suspects were innocent. Social workers developed methods for simplifying the labeling process as reflected in official records: Hitting which resulted in an injury was always treated as if it indicated the intention to injure, and behavior commonly known as “sexual” was always treated as if it was identical with the intent to sexually exploit.

Child sexual abuse by nonrelated caregivers

This study examined the social contexts in which sexually abusive child care providers came into contact with children and parents. Content analysis of 325 case records resulted in the identification of seven main child care arrangements in which sexual abuse occurred. These arrangements varied by the routinization and formality of the caregiving relationship, as well as the methods of caregiver selection and reimbursement. The main finding was that the vast majority of female perpetrators were adolescents whose abusive behavior took place in the caregiving arrangement in which she is selected by parents, engaged on a routine basis, and paid a sum of money for her child care. In contrast, sexually abusive male caregivers represented a wide range of ages and committed sexual abuse over a significantly broader range of situations than female caregivers.

Gender and the stolen kiss: The social support of male and female to violate a partner's sexual consent in a noncoercive situation

Although the literature on gender and status consistently asserts that men receive greater support for sexual self-determination than women do, this study found the contrary to be true in the case of noncoercive kissing. College students assessed a vignette in which one dating partner says he/she does not want to be kissed, but the other partner does not listen, and kisses him/her anyway. There was significantly more support for the female to violate the males consent in this situation than vice versa, and there was significantly less support for the male to withhold sexual consent. The paper concluded by suggesting that men received less support to violate a partners sexual consent than women did because men are seen as more threatening than women. Correspondingly, men received less support to withhold sexual consent because the appearance of diffidence conflicts with the cultural norm of male aggressiveness.

When vocabularies of motive fail: The example of fatal child abuse

Many social theorists emphasize peoples capacity for empathic understanding, shared meanings, and forgiveness. They argue that norm violators can achieve social redemption by offering excuses and justifications. The findings from this study show that this is not always true. Evidence from the case records of caretakers accused of killing their children showed that the majority did not try to explain their actions by invoking excuses and justifications. They either pretended they had no idea what happened to the child or constructed a fictional cause of the childs death which made themselves appear innocent. The minority who attempted to explain why they killed a child received little or no forgiveness. These findings show that some norm violations cannot be translated into acceptable vocabularies of motive.

Social approval for violations of sexual consent in marriage and dating.

This study compares approval for minor violations of sexual consent in three contexts: marriage, long-term dating, and a first date. Quantitative and qualitative data from a vignette experiment show that as couples progress from a first date to marriage, men gain support to violate their partner’s consent, and, to a lesser degree, women lose support to assert their rights. Evidence is presented that men are more approving of male dominance and female passivity in dating and marriage than are women.

Child sexual abuse by uncles: A risk assessment☆

Using a sample of 982 mothers who reported on child care and living arrangements involving uncles, and case records documenting the sexual abuse of 171 children by 148 uncles, this study examined the ways uncles ordinarily become involved with children, the conditions under which that involvement becomes associated with sexual abuse, and the role gender plays in this dysfunction. Among the findings, it was noted that although aunts were responsible for 28 times more child care than uncles, uncles were responsible for 48 times more child sexual abuse. Although female children do not have more exposure to uncles than do males, they appeared four times more likely to be victimized. About 19% of the abusive uncles lived with the children they abused, and most of the remainder came into contact with them as child care providers or during overnight visits. Implications for practice are discussed.