Published: November 1, 2002

Reviews

HARMFUL TO MINORS: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex, by Judith Levine (University of Minnesota, 296 pages, $25.95).

Throughout the past decade, a battle has raged in schools between proponents of comprehensive and abstinence-only sex education. The latter contingent wants educators to teach students, through popular programs such as "Sex Respect," to simply say no. The other camp, meanwhile, wants kids to learn about safe sex in addition to the abstinence option.

In her smartly contrarian and controversial book—several big publishers rejected it—New York journalist Levine rues the fact that the abstinence-only forces have, for the time being, won the day. States that accept any of the millions of federal dollars available for sex education, she points out, must instruct young people that nonmarital sex "is likely to have harmful psychological and social effects." This emphasis on chastity is part of what Levine sees as a national sex panic, the unfortunate assumption being that teen sex...