Pedophilia and Adult–Child Sex

Stephen Kershnar¹s latest book will be relevant to anyone interested in the ethics of interacting with children, the ethics of sex, and, needless to say, the ethics of sex with children. Plausibly maintaining that emotional reactions of disgust and knee-jerk appeals to intuition are not enough to ground normative judgment, Kershnar engages in a comprehensive and thorough philosophical discussion of various facets of adult-child sex. He provides plausible conceptual analyses of key concepts, usefully distinguishes between various kinds of adult-child sex (depending on the nature of the parties, the use of force, the infliction of pain, and so on), and advances thoughtful—albeit controversial—answers to the questions of whether and when adult-child sex is an instance of mental illness, wrong action, or bad character. -- Thaddeus Metz, University of Johannesburg