Academic seduction
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Academic seduction is sometimes considered a type of sexual abuse, and refers to the phenomenon of college professors having sexual relations with their students. Some studies report the frequency of sexual relations between students and professors at 10-13% of students [1] (http://kspope.com/sexiss/research1.php). It is similar to the phenomenon of therapist abuse and priest abuse [2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_of_Roman_Catholic_Church_to_sex_abuse_by_priests_in_the_20th_century).
It has been attributed to the psychological projection of status and authority on the professor by the student, and the professor's exploitation of their experience in psychological techniques of NLP or speed seduction, which were a fad for a time in western academia.
There is also a natural tendency for females of college age to develop crushes on authority figures [3] (http://www.askthecollegeguy.com/CrushOnProf.htm), 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.
