I Can't to I Kant: The Sexual Harassment of Working Adolescents, Competing Theories, and Ethical Dilemmas

Abstract:     
This Article offers a unique theoretical foundation for prohibiting the sexual harassment of working adolescents by adult co-workers. After analyzing the socio-legal treatment of sexuality, the Article reviews classic philosophical perspectives on juvenile capacity and new psychosocial evidence concerning adolescent development. It weaves this information with Kantian ethics to synthesize a customized legal theory to address the sexual harassment of minors and adolescent "consent" to sex with an adult co-worker. With more than seven million adolescents in the American workforce and new sexual harassment cases involving teens filtering through the courts, this Article is both timely and important.

Keywords: sexual harassment, juveniles, employment, legal theory, Kantian ethics

Accepted Paper Series