Consensual Violence

Abstract

Abstract Most people often think decriminalization happens by repealing a law, but Sex, Sports, and the Politics of Consensual Violence challenges this view showing that social decriminalization must precede legal change. Social decriminalization requires four conditions: 1) an organized group who participates in a similar activity; 2) a shared legal consciousness; 3) an established set of rules and norms that appeal to a Weberian legal-rational authority; and 4) a social context where the activity is not too morally verboten. This book features two case studies where groups engage in acts of consensual violence – mixed-martial arts and sexual sadomasochism – to demonstrate how both develop rules and norms around the notion of consent to render their activities legally and socially tolerable. Social decriminalization is a conceptual tool that can help us better understand social and legal change from a constructivist lens.