Archive Article

Age of Consent

Initially the researchers conducted an extensive literature review incorporating: Peer-reviewed academic research; Governmental reports and inquiries; Royal Commission submissions and published recommendations; Published and unpublished reports from non-government organisations; Articles from the community press and magazines; Archival material from the collections of the State Library of NSW; and The world wide web. Searches were conducted on the following academic CD-Rom and online databases -- ABI, Alternative Press Index, APAIS, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Australian Family Resources, Australian Medical Index, Badger, Butterworth's Online, Casebase, Child Abuse and Neglect, CINAHL, CINCH, Commonwealth Legislation, Current Contents, Current Law Cases, Dissertation Abstracts International, Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews, Expanded Academic Full Text, Family and Society Abstracts, Family Studies Database, Health and Society Database, Humanities Index, Index to Theses, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, The Lancet, Legal Journals Index, Medline, Nature, PAIS (US), Proquest, PSYCINFO, Reader's Guide to Periodicals, Social Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Index, Social Work Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, and Women's Resources International. From these sources a relatively small amount of relevant material emerged. This absence of empirical and theoretical research on the issue was significant in revealing just how little serious academic and social debate had occurred. The issuing literature fell mainly into the following categories: Concrete political and legal analyses of the NSW/Australian situation; Essentially moral/philosophical accounts of past debate around age of consent controversies; Papers and articles on the ramifications of unequal homosexual ages of consent (and other related legislation such as Section 28 in the UK) on education/health provision to young gays; and A large volume of research on the sexual behaviour of young gay men--almost invariably focussing on risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS. Particularly noticeable (and lamentable) was the lack of rigorous research into the psychosocial issues facing young gay males (very little of this dealing with under 18's). Moreover, we found an almost complete dearth of research designed to allow the subjective voices of young gay men to be heard. Most extant research tended to take the form of highly quantitative accounts of sexual behaviour (for example, Connell et al 1989; Connell and Kippax 1990; Crawford et al 1998; Davies et al 1992; Ekstrand and Coates 1990; Evans et al 1993; Van de Ven et al 1997). As for the desires, feelings, intentions, and aspirations that bring about, accompany, and circumscribe this sexual behaviour comparatively very little has been written. In addition to this comprehensive review of materials, we undertook modest empirical research in the form of qualitative focus group research with young gay men in Sydney and also in-depth interviews with some health, welfare and counselling professionals who provide services to this population. This approach was designed to yield interesting and pertinent data as well as remedying the lack of attention paid to the subjective experience of young gay males living under such legal constraints. It should be noted that more extensive qualitative and quantitative data could have been collected, however this would have been outside the project's brief and resources. Focus groups conducted by the researchers were drawn from populations using the services of 2010, ACON, and the Sydney Mogenic Collective. Individual health, welfare, and counselling professionals from ACON, 2010, and the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service were also interviewed.