Nancy Whittier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195325102
- eISBN:
- 9780199869350
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195325102.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter returns to the question of activists' engagement with the state, examining the different forms that movement organizations' relationships with state authorities took during the 1990s and ...
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This chapter returns to the question of activists' engagement with the state, examining the different forms that movement organizations' relationships with state authorities took during the 1990s and 2000s, when the therapeutic state around child sexual abuse was well‐developed, and shows the kinds of access and compromise these relationships brought. It discusses entry of activists into state agencies, movement organizations' professionalization, and increasing funding to provide services to the state, arguing that some groups became part of a para‐state. It traces organizations' use of crime victims compensation funds and activists' attempts to increase criminal and civil penalties for child sexual abuse Finally, the chapter analyzes newer organizations' involvement with public health initiatives to prevent child sexual abuse. Overall, the chapter argues that activists' involvement with the state was shaped by the priorities and pressures of the state, showing the continued power of medical and criminal approaches over others. Yet activists, particularly in the public health wing, continued to bring larger political goals into their work, illustrating the paradoxical nature of social movement outcomes.Less
This chapter returns to the question of activists' engagement with the state, examining the different forms that movement organizations' relationships with state authorities took during the 1990s and 2000s, when the therapeutic state around child sexual abuse was well‐developed, and shows the kinds of access and compromise these relationships brought. It discusses entry of activists into state agencies, movement organizations' professionalization, and increasing funding to provide services to the state, arguing that some groups became part of a para‐state. It traces organizations' use of crime victims compensation funds and activists' attempts to increase criminal and civil penalties for child sexual abuse Finally, the chapter analyzes newer organizations' involvement with public health initiatives to prevent child sexual abuse. Overall, the chapter argues that activists' involvement with the state was shaped by the priorities and pressures of the state, showing the continued power of medical and criminal approaches over others. Yet activists, particularly in the public health wing, continued to bring larger political goals into their work, illustrating the paradoxical nature of social movement outcomes.
