Name, Shame and Blame: Criminalising Consensual Sex in Papua New Guinea

Description

Papua New Guinea is one of the many former British Commonwealth colonies which maintain the criminalisation of the sexual activities of two groups, despite the fact that the sex takes place between consenting adults in private: sellers of sex and males who have sex with males. The English common law system was imposed on the colonies with little regard for the social regulation and belief systems of the colonised, and in most instances, was retained and developed post-Independence, regardless of the infringements of human rights involved. Now the HIV pandemic has thrown a spotlight, not altogether welcome, on the sexual activities of these two groups. In Papua New Guinea, a growing body of behavioural research has focused on such matters as individual sexual partnering, condom use and awareness of HIV. My work, however, has a different purpose. I chose the terms in the title to highlight a nexus which I believe exists between the criminal law and negative attitudes of society. At an international level, the argument has been put that decriminalising sex work and sodomy will facilitate HIV epidemic management, reducing the stigma and discrimination these groups encounter and making them easier to reach. I undertook my research therefore with the aim of gaining deeper understanding of the effects the current situation of criminalisation might have on the social lives of these criminalised people today, in the country generally and in Port Moresby the capital in particular, and whether these effects might provide evidence to support the argument for law reform. This is a rich and well-researched study of the legal, social and moral issues surrounding the criminalisation of two forms of consensual sex…. A very impressive piece of work, it is extensively documented, relies on a wide range of material and makes a clear and coherent argument about the place of law in producing identities and exclusions…. The attention to change over time and the complexity of the ways in which sexual behaviour is enacted and punished is a particular strength of the book. —Professor Sally Engle Merry, Anthropology, Law and Society, New York University This book is an exceptional contribution to our knowledge of the nexus between the criminal law and negative attitudes of society, and what effects criminalization has on the social lives of prostitutes and males who have sex with males, and whether these effects might provide evidence to support the argument for law reform…. The author’s experience of Papua New Guinea allows her to comment in depth on such matters as the United Nations’ human rights approach to the HIV epidemic and their call to decriminalize all sexual acts between consenting adults…. She shows that criminal laws—with the help of the normative discourse of religion and media—underpin and legitimize high levels of stigma, discrimination and abuse of prostitutes and males who have sex with males…. The quality of the writing and general presentation are exceptional. —Laura Zimmer-Tamakoshi, Truman State University (retired)

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Similar books

• 

  Blame It on the Shame

  By Ashley Jade

  - Warning: Due to strong language, some violence, explicit sexual content, and some dark elements, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18. *Trigger Warning*: Any readers with sensitivity to dark reads should proceed with ...

• 

  Blame It on the Shame

  By Ashley Jade

  You'd be broken. There are two sides to every story...this is ours. Warning: Due to strong language, some violence, explicit sexual content, and some dark elements, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

• 

  Shame and Guilt

  By June Price Tangney, Ronda L. Dearing

  This volume reports on the growing body of knowledge on shame and guilt, integrating findings from the authors' original research program with other data emerging from social, clinical, personality, and developmental psychology.

• 

  I Thought it was Just Me (but it Isn't): Making the Journey from "What Will People Think?" to "I Am...

  By Brené Brown

  Draws on research with hundreds of interviewees to identify the pervasive influence of cultural shame, discussing how women can recognize the ways in which shame influences their health and relationships and can be transformed into courage ...

• 

  Rereading Chaucer and Spenser: Dan Geffrey with the New Poete

  By Gareth Griffith, Tamsin Badcoe, Rachel Stenner

  23 Michael Foster, Chaucer's Narrators and the Rhetoric of SelfRepresentation (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2008), 65. 24 Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, ed. A.C. Hamilton, Hiroshi Yamashita and Toshiyuki Suzuki (Harlow: Longman, 1988; repr.

• 

  Blaming Mothers: American Law and the Risks to Children’s Health

  By Linda C. Fentiman

  These are just two of the many cases that portray mothers as the major source of health risk for their children.

• 

  A Death Retold: Jesica Santillan, the Bungled Transplant, and Paradoxes of Medical Citizenship

  By Keith Wailoo, Julie Livingston, Peter Guarnaccia

  ... blame, but where responsibility actually rests. In this case, there is more than enough blame to go around. In any ... name, shame, and blame'' Dr. Jaggers. the fiction of root cause analysis and corrective procedures The administrators ...

• 

  Conversations that Make a Difference for Children and Young People: Relationship-Focused Practice from the Frontline

  By Lisa Cherry

  Bonetti S (2020) Early Years Workforce Development in England: Key Ingredients and Missed Opportunities. ... Frost, P.N., Abbott, S. and Race, T. (2015) Family Support: Prevention, Early Intervention and Early Help.

• 

  A Companion to Chaucer

  By Peter Brown

  Sarah Stanbury teaches in the English Department at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. She is the author ofSeeing ... entitled Balaam's Ass: Vernacular Theology in Medieval England. Scott D. Westrem is Associate ...