Citation

Levesque RJR. Int. J. Child Maltreat. 2021; 4(1): 73-91.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s42448-021-00070-0

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The study of human development has long confirmed the significance of personal security to healthy developmental outcomes. Yet, legal systems pervasively fail to reflect that reality. The lack of developments means that progress in claiming and protecting the right to personal security requires understanding the inherent limitations in current conceptions of rights potentially related to personal security. Developing the right to personal security also means recognizing the possibilities of different governmental systems put in place to protect rights. This article examines those limitations and possibilities after articulating what developmental science reveals about the nature and significance of personal security. Those foundational lessons reveal that, while the right to personal security currently remains undeveloped, the lack of development is worth addressing. Using children's rights as a starting point and focusing on US law, this analysis reveals that the right to personal security holds promise, particularly as an exception to dominant legal conceptions of rights. Effectively recognizing that right, however, must begin by claiming it and by countering concerns that the right would be too problematic to support and protect. This article concludes that the right's promise is even present in the United States, which has narrow views of the right to personal security as well as of children's rights.

Language: en