... a woman, but more often a child. Engaging legal, queer and political theory, case law and statutory law, and media representation, Fischel proposes that we shift our adjudicative terms from innocence, consent, and predation, to vulnerability, sexual autonomy, and peremption—a term the author defines...

...Chapter 3 proposes reforms to age of consent laws via the principle of sexual autonomy. Conceptually, sexual autonomy envisions young people as volitional but vulnerable. Practically, sexual autonomy portends a lowered age of sexual consent, decriminalization of sex between minors, regulation over...

...The conclusion offers four postscripts to the four corresponding chapters of the book. It suggests that my assessment of sex panics (Ch. 1), constructivist critique of the sex offender (Ch. 2), relational defense of sexual autonomy (Ch. 3), and figuration of adolescence (Ch. 4), offer productive...