Academic seduction: Encyclopedia - Academic seduction

Academic seduction

Physical abuse
Torture / Severe Corporal punishment

Psychological abuse
Humiliation / Intimidation / Bullying
Hate speech / Manipulation / Stalking
/ Coercive persuasion
Sexual abuse
Sexual assault / Rape
Sexual harassment

Child abuse / Domestic violence
Prisoner abuse / Elder abuse
Animal abuse

Police brutality
Human experimentation

Academic seduction is sometimes considered a type of sexual abuse, and refers to the phenomenon of college professors having sexual relations with their students. One study, conducted on psychology students, reports that 10% had sexual interactions with their educators; in turn, 13% of educators reported sexual interaction with their students [1]. Some draw parallels with the phenomena of therapist abuse and priest abuse [2].

There is also a natural tendency for females of college age to develop crushes on authority figures [3], for perhaps sociobiological reasons.

This also happens, to a lesser extent, with males.

There has been controversy over such relationships, especially within the last decade and responses vary. Most colleges/universities do not ban teacher/student relationships so long as the student is not currently attending a class taught by the teacher. Such relationships might not be seen as harmful in and of themselves provided the instructor does not misuse any power.

It is a common theme in literature, for example:

• 'The History Man', a British novel that later was a BBC television film.

• 'Disgrace' by J. M. Coetzee, a novel about a South African literature professor whose career is ruined after he has an affair with a student.

• 'Oleanna', an American film starring William H. Macy and Debra Eisenstadt as a college professor and his student, respectively; the student claims that she is a victim of academic seduction, the professor claims that the sexual contact never occurred, and the film deals with the moral controversy of academic seduction as it never becomes clear which character is correct.

Categories: Accuracy disputes | Academia | Abuse

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Academic seduction", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki