Sexting and Young People

Thomas Crofts is Associate Professor and Director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology, University of Sydney, Australia. His research in criminal law, criminology and criminal justice centres on criminalisation and criminal responsibility, with a particular focus on the criminal responsibility of young people.   Murray Lee is Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Sydney, Australia. He is author of over 40 refereed journal articles and book chapters on topics including crime prevention, fear of crime, policing, and crime and disadvantage.   Alyce McGovern is Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of New South Wales, Australia. Alyce's research areas focus on police media and public relations, crime and (social) media, craftivism and criminology education.   Sanja Milivojevic is Lecturer in Criminology, University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research interests are trafficking in people and transnational crime, borders and mobility, security technologies, surveillance and crime, sexting, gender and victimisation and international criminal justice and human rights.

"The relationship between the child and sex poses a wide range of thorny questions for late modern societies: increasingly so in the light of access to, and use of, new technologies particularly by the young. This book takes this controversial topic and subjects it to a thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis. Importantly it situates the voices, understandings and experiences of young people themselves, up against prevailing media, legal and educational discourses and in so doing raises some difficult issues for all of these realms. This is a remarkable achievement. In giving detailed consideration to the concepts of pressure, agency, gender, and the role of the image, this book is a must read for academics and practitioners alike who claim to make sense of this territory on behalf of young people. Each of these audiences will be both surprised and challenged by what they read." - Professor Sandra Walklake, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, UK "Since the creation of the internet in instantaneous global communication we live in parallel worlds of cyberspace and real space. By drawing on a rich array of sources and original research, this book demonstrates that this condition of liquid modernity brings new opportunities and new risks. One of those is sexting a complex practice that has been over-simplified by social and legal responses fixated on regulating childhood sexuality. This fixation is not new. This book makes a powerful argument that the responses to sexting driven by this overly retributive and narrow focus can be more harmful than sexting itself (which is only harmful when sexualised images are disseminated without consent). The authors suggest much better ways of responding to this new crime of liquid modernity informed not only by their exceptional legal and criminological expertise, but crucially by the voices of young people themselves. Sexting and Young People is essential reading for a wide audience of legal and social policy makers as well as academics and students of social media, criminology, criminal law, social policy, youth studies and gender and sexuality studies." - Professor Kerry Carrington, Head of School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Australia "Sexting and Young People presents a comprehensive and insightful analysis of the issues surrounding the contemporary phenomena of 'sexting' by young people, and the behaviours and perceptions of young people about their motivations in relation to sexting makes for compelling reading." - Megan Mitchell, Australian National Children's Commissioner

• Foreword; Megan Mitchell, Australian National Children's Commissioner PART I: UNDERSTANDING SEXTING BY YOUNG PEOPLE 1. An Introduction to Sexting and Young People 2. Conceptualising Sexting PART II: YOUNG PEOPLE AND SEXTING DISCOURSES 3. Media Representations of Sexting 4. Sexting as Child Pornography 5. Factors Determining Whether Young People are Prosecuted 6. Sexting Education 7. Review of Existing Research PART III: SEXTING: YOUNG PEOPLE'S VOICES 8. Online Survey Data 9. Perceptions and Practices of Sexting 10. Perceptions of Legal Responses to Sexting 11. Making Sense of Sexting PART IV: FUTURES AND NEW DIRECTIONS 12. Developing Responses to Sexting 13. Conclusion