Strangers in Our Midst: Sexual Deviancy in Postwar Ontario (review)

Constructions of, and responses to, sexual deviancy form the subject matter of Elise Chenier’s dissertation-turned-monograph, Strangers in Our Midst: Sexual Deviancy in Postwar Ontario. As is her goal, Chenier offers a timely and impressive broadening of the history of sexuality, one that goes beyond a narrow examination of homosexual male deviancy in forensic sexology while never losing sight of this history’s impact on the construction of the broader category of the sexual deviant. By casting “a critical gaze on the entire system of sexual classification” (pp. 6–7) and considering the influence of multiple and intersecting discourses on the regulation of the sexual deviant, Chenier demonstrates how “interpretations of human sexual behaviour are highly subjective, shaped by prevailing views of normative sex and gender roles as well as changing historical definitions of harm and deviancy” (p. 204).

Expertly weaving together insights from myriad sources—including archival materials from the Parents Action League, media reports, case law, interviews, and government documents—Chenier reveals the “range of social and political processes through which psychiatric treatment came to be seen as the best way to address the problem of sex crimes . . . how mental health experts attempted to meet the demand for treatments, [and] the ways [in which] these programs became mechanisms of control and regulation” (p. 8). Interestingly, she demonstrates how the campaign for psychiatric treatment of sexual deviants in post-war Ontario had more in common with the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century liberal progressive reform movements than with Cold War conservative anxieties about changing sexual and gender mores, masculinity, and the disruption of the family by the Depression and World War II. Progressive roots notwithstanding, Chenier reveals “how the model of human sexuality that accepted homosexuality as a harmless deviation from a social norm also normalized forms of heterosexual violence” (p. 11) and how these roots are hidden from contemporary practitioners.

Strangers in Our Midst is divided into two densely researched and engagingly written sections. Part 1, “Theories,” considers the birth of the concept of the “criminal sexual psychopath,” the construction of social citizenship and sexual danger, and the Canadian government’s Royal Commission on the criminal lawrelating to criminal sexual psychopaths. Part 2, “Practices,” examines the history of treatment for sexual deviation in post-war Ontario and considers the means by which “mad” and “bad” sexual deviation were treated, the treatment regimens for sexual deviants in Ontario’s prisons, and the role of forensic sexology and compulsory heterosexuality in these. Chenier concludes by asserting that while sex offending is undoubtedly a serious social problem, scholars, practitioners, and government officials need to recognize the construction of the sex offender as that which “hinders rather than promotes understanding of the nature of human sexual behaviour” (p. 164).

Given that “[v]irtually no studies have demonstrated success in reducing rates of recidivism among sex offenders through medical or psychological treatment,” Canada’s continued “faith in medicine and mental health solutions for ‘curing’ sex offenders of their deviant desires” (p. 78) demands urgent consideration. Mapping the transition from medico-legal-based laws that sought to treat sex offenders with compassion to the present-day emphasis on longer or indefinite incarceration, the creation of sex-offender registries, and close monitoring using GPS, Chenier urges her readers to consider how “the entire foundation upon which the modern conception of the repeat sex offender rests is a social construction based on hopes, dreams, and ideals that were, from the beginning, subject to intense criticism by legal, medical and psychiatric experts alike” (p. 164). Only in this way, she contends, can legal actors and medical practitioners engage in a necessary dialogue about treatment, rehabilitation, and incarceration and revisit contemporary policy and correctional treatment programs for sex offenders in Ontario.

This monograph’s relevance extends well beyond studies in history, gender, and sexuality and, as a result, will be of great import to scholars and practitioners in the areas of psychology, criminology, and law. Chenier’s...