Equal Treatment for People with Mental Retardation

Equal Treatment for People with Mental Retardation

Author: Martha A. Field

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 9780674036840

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Engaging in sex, becoming parents, raising children: these are among the most personal decisions we make, and for people with mental retardation, these decisions are consistently challenged, regulated, and outlawed. This book is a comprehensive study of the American legal doctrines and social policies, past and present, that have governed procreation and parenting by persons with mental retardation. It argues persuasively that people with retardation should have legal authority to make their own decisions. Despite the progress of the normalization movement, which has moved so many people with mental retardation into the mainstream since the 1960s, negative myths about reproduction and child rearing among this population persist. Martha Field and Valerie Sanchez trace these prejudices to the eugenics movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They show how misperceptions have led to inconsistent and discriminatory outcomes when third parties seek to make birth control or parenting decisions for people with mental retardation. They also explore the effect of these decisions on those they purport to protect. Detailed, thorough, and just, their book is a sustained argument for reform of the legal practices and social policies it describes.


Mental Capacity Law, Sexual Relationships, and Intimacy

Mental Capacity Law, Sexual Relationships, and Intimacy

Author: Beverley Clough

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2024-09-19

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1529235634

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Questions as to the mental capacity of an individual to consent to sex are an increasingly important aspect of legal scholarship and professional practice for those working in care. Recent case law has added new layers of complexity, requiring that a person must be able to understand that the other person needs to consent and can withdraw that consent. While this has been welcomed for asserting the importance of the interpersonal dynamics of sex, it has significant implications for practice and for the day-to-day lives of people with cognitive impairments. This collection brings together academics, practitioners and organizations to consider the challenges posed by the current legal framework, and future directions for law, policy and practice.


What is Mental Retardation?

What is Mental Retardation?

Author: Harvey N. Switzky

Publisher: AAMR

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9780940898943

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What is Mental Retardation? is a rare peek into the divergent--and at times contentious--points of view among the world's leading researchers on what the condition of mental retardation is and how it should be defined, measured, and implemented in the 21st century. This candid and insightful collection of 21 essays features expert opinion on issues ranging from whether mental retardation really is a slowing of mental development and what the disability should be called, to how cultural norms affect the definition of the condition worldwide and lessons learned from the Atkins v. Virginia case. The definitions of mental retardation published from 1921-2002 by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities provide the backdrop for this powerful discussion.


Encyclopedia of Rape and Sexual Violence [2 volumes]

Encyclopedia of Rape and Sexual Violence [2 volumes]

Author: Merril D. Smith

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2018-05-03

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13:

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This two-volume set provides an authoritative overview of rape and other forms of sexual violence, containing the latest information about victims and perpetrators; events, laws, and trends related to sexual violence; and attitudes toward it. This encyclopedia will help readers to develop a deeper understanding of rape and other forms of sexual violence in the United States and around the world. Content illuminates all aspects of this serious issue, including the forms of trauma experienced by survivors/victims; different types of rape, from incest to acquaintance rape to prison rape; specific cases, events, and controversies; laws, policies, movements, and organizations pertaining to the issue; and legal, political, and cultural contributors to rape and other forms of sexual violence. Encyclopedia of Rape and Sexual Violence follows an A–Z format, but instead of comprising brief overview entries, it features twenty chapters, each of which is a long-form entry that covers key perspectives, laws, court cases, and statistics on survivors/victims and perpetrators. Leading scholars' and activists' perspectives on the subject add depth to the information provided; the set also includes a selection of essential primary documents.


Sexual Abuse in the Lives of Women Diagnosed withSerious Mental Illness

Sexual Abuse in the Lives of Women Diagnosed withSerious Mental Illness

Author: Maxine Harris

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-03-23

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 1317710622

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Although a substantial amount of media and professional attention has been devoted to the incidence of sexual abuse in the population at large, the plight of those who have suffered abuse and are seriously mentally ill has largely been ignored. Adding to the existing literature on trauma, this book exposes the prevalence of physical and emotional abuse among severely mentally ill patients, and includes case studies that reveal its tragic and devastating impact. Offering chapters on theory and assessment of abused women, this book explores services that are available to them, discusses treatment (including inpatient and cognitive-behavioral approaches), and addresses recommendations for the improvement of both policy and research.


Emerging Perspectives on Disability Studies

Emerging Perspectives on Disability Studies

Author: M. Wappett

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-11-12

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1137371978

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Emerging Perspectives on Disability Studies brings together up-and-coming scholars whose works expand disability studies into new interdisciplinary contexts. This includes new perspectives on disability identity; historical constructions of (dis)ability; the geography of disability; the spiritual nature of disability; governmentality and disability rights; neurodiversity and challenges to medicalized constructions of autism; and questions of citizenship and participation in political and sexual economies. In sum, this volume uses disability studies as an innovative framework for its investigation into what it means to be human.


Sexuality, Disability, and the Law

Sexuality, Disability, and the Law

Author: M. Perlin

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-08

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1137481080

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Sexuality, Disability, and the Law approaches issues of sexual autonomy and disability from multiple perspectives, including constitutional law, international human rights, therapeutic jurisprudence, history, cognitive psychology, dignity studies, and theories and findings on gender constructs and societal norms. Perlin and Lynch determine that if our society continues to assert that persons with mental disabilities possess a primitive morality, we allow ourselves to censor their feelings and their actions. By denying their ability and desires to show love and affection, we justify this disparate treatment. Our reliance on stereotypes has warped our attitudes and our policies, and has allowed us to avoid important issues of humanity and of dignity that should be at the basis of any policies that affect this population.


Sexuality and Disabilities

Sexuality and Disabilities

Author: Deborah P Valentine

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1136614095

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Individuals with disabilities are often “desexualized” in our society, yet they have the same need for intimacy, self-worth, and social belonging as people without disabilities. Sexuality and Disabilities addresses persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and cognitive disabilities and their concerns in the areas of intimacy, family issues, sexuality, and sexual functioning. It offers suggestions for professionals who work with persons with these disabilities to help them work more competently with disabled persons in the sexuality arena. These concrete ideas are excellent for staff training and education and for enhancing professional development for those working with persons with physical disabilities. The contributing authors create an awareness that all people need individualized consideration and that the special needs of all individuals are important, especially for those who may have previously been left to discover things on their own--usually unsuccessfully. Sexuality and Disabilities focuses on a wide range of disabilities, including physical, developmental, and learning disabilities, mental retardation, and conditions that may have an impact on people later in life such as strokes, heart disease, or other chronic illness. Chapters discuss education and support issues for both practitioners and clients. Some of the topics examined include: components of a staff training program on sexuality and disability specific recommendations for sexuality education and counseling with people with spinal cord injuries and other acquired severe neurological disabilities a program model serving parents with mental retardation and their children specific ways educational programming, social work intervention, and policy efforts can address the special learning needs of people with cognitive impairments sources of support and stress for families caring for developmentally disabled children an analysis of special vulnerabilities and challenges relating to sexual victimization that confront people with disabilities An extremely helpful tool for human service practitioners, Sexuality and Disabilities is also a valuable resource for graduate and undergraduate students who have an interest in working with people with physical, cognitive, or mental disabilities and helping them explore this basic facet of their lives.