Dis/Consent: Persepectives on Sexual Consent and Sexual Violence

This summarizes proceedings of a Scientific Research Planning Meeting on Sexual Violence and HIV transmission, convened by the Social Science Research Council on 19–20 March 2012 at the Greentree Foundation in New York. The Meeting brought together an interdisciplinary group of basic, clinical, epidemiological and social science researchers and policy makers with the aim of: (1) examining what is known about the physiology of sexual violence and its role in HIV transmission, acquisition and pathogenesis; (2) specifying factors that distinguish risks throughout the maturation of the female genital tract, the reproductive cycle and among post-menopausal women; and (3) developing a research agenda to explore unanswered questions. The Meeting resulted in a consensus Research Agenda and White Paper that identify priorities for HIV research, policy and practice as it pertains to the role of sexual violence and genital injury in HIV transmission, acquisition and pathogenesis, particularly among women and girls.

Preface: On the Duty to Face Sexual Violence and Conflict The Honourable Michaelle Jean. Acknowledgments. Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies: Situating International Agendas and their African Contexts 1. Seeing Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies: The Limits of Visibility Doris Buss 2. The Political Economy of War: What Women Need to Know Meredeth Turshen Sexual Violence and Conflict: Civil Society Perspectives on Patterns, Causes and Solutions 3. Sexual Violence Patterns, Causes, and Possible Solutions: An Interview with Kudakwshe Chitsike, Research and Advocacy Unit, Zimbabwe and Jessica Nkuuhe, Independent Consultant, Uganda Doris Buss 4. Sexual Violence Patterns, Causes, and Possible Solutions: An Interview with Julienne Lusenge, Solidarite Feminine pour la Paix Integrale (SOFEPADI), Democratic Republic of Congo Sexual Violence and Harm: From Conflict to Post-Conflict Societies 5. Gendered Insecurity and the Enduring Impacts of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in Northern Uganda Rebecca Tiessen and Lahoma Thomas 6. Through War to Peace: Sexual Violence and Adolescent Girls Donna Sharkey 7. Ritual and Reintegration of Young Women Formerly Abducted as Child Soldiers in Northern Uganda Christine Mbabazi Mpyangu 8. Considering Gender Relations and Culture in the Psychosocial Adaptation of Individuals and Communities Affected by Sexualised Violence in African Conflicts Sophie C. Yohani Representing Harms and the Trouble with (Victim) Categories 9. Sexual Violence, Female Agencies, and Sexual Consent: Complexities of Sexual Violence in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide Jennie E. Burnet 10. The Representation of Rape by the Special Court for Sierra Leone Valerie Oosterveld 11. Justice and Reparations for Rwanda's Enfants Mauvais Souvenirs Sandra Le Courtois 12. On Transitional Justice Entrepreneurs and the Production of Victims Tshepo Madlingozi The Gender of Security 13. A Gendered Reading of Security and Security Reform in Post Conflict Societies Fionnuala Ni Aolain, Naomi Cahn and Dina Haynes 14. Security Sector Reform in Africa: A Lost Opportunity to Deconstruct Militarised Masculinities? Yaliwe Clarke 15. Women Peacekeepers and UNPOL Officers in the Fight Against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Post-Conflict Zones Sophie Toupin Post-Conflict Development and International Agendas 16. Development and Its Discontents: Ending Violence Against Women in Post-Conflict Liberia Pamela Scully 17. International Assistance to Combat Sexual Violence in the Congo: Placing Congolese Women at the Heart of the Process! Denis Tougas

The pervasiveness of sexual assault among college women prompted examination of college students' sexual-consent expectancies using sexual scripting theory as a framework. We aimed to understand how personal beliefs, experiences with sexual violence, and dominant cultural gendered sexual scripts in music media inform sexual-consent expectancies among a sample of primarily White heterosexual college students at a northwestern university (n = 364). Participants viewed music videos with sexual and objectifying content and reported their perceptions of how women were portrayed. Linear mixed modeling with Maximum Likelihood with interactions by biological sex revealed associations between past sexual victimization and lower expectancies to adhere to a sexual partner's consent wishes. Men with a history of perpetrating sexual violence had lower expectancies to ask for consent, and women with more traditional sexual stereotypes had lower expectancies to seek consent or refuse unwanted sex. Having lower expectancies to adhere to a partner's consent wishes was associated with holding more traditional sexual stereotypes for both men and women. Participants who perceived women as powerlessness in viewed music videos had lower expectancies to ask for consent from a sexual partner, to refuse unwanted sexual advances, and to adhere to a decision regarding sexual consent. Through the lens of sexual scripting theory, results advance understanding of how the intersection of biological sex, experiences of sexual violence, gendered beliefs, and cultural scripts in music media inform young adults' sexual expectancies and potential for sexual risk. Implications for prevention include addressing gendered sexual scripts to reduce ambiguity around sexual consent among college students. Media-based interventions are discussed as a strategy toward this end.

Sexual consent is an understudied and undertheorized concept despite its importance to feminist researchers and activists interested in sexual violence. Literature on consent, although sparse, has been produced from a variety of disciplines, including law, psychology, and sociology. This article is a critical review of current literature and current understandings of sexual consent. Different conceptualizations of consent are analysed including implicit and explicit definitions from legal theorists and sexual violence and consent researchers. Alternatives, including communicative sexuality, are discussed and feminist understandings of the social context of consent and the social forces that produce understandings of consent are examined. Directions for future research are suggested.

Objectives: For decades, scholars and sexual health professionals have urged policymakers to improve the efficacy of sex education. Although some progress has been made through the development of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), curricula in the United States remain limited. For instance, healthy sexual encounters require mutual sexual consent, void of sexually coercive behaviours, yet CSE initiatives only recently added instruction on consent and coercion as important parts of sex education curricula. Further, little is known about what youth learn about consent and coercion through family, friends, and media. The purpose of this study, then, was to gain insight into the information young adults received during adolescence about sexual consent and coercion through formal and informal sources, and to seek their perceptions about possible curriculum improvement. Methods: This study utilized five focus groups to assess 32 college students’ perceptions about their adolescent experiences with instruction on consent and coercion in formal and informal sex education. The mean participant age was 22, and most were women, heterosexual, and Latinx. Results: The results indicated that these young adults did not learn about sexual consent and coercion while in high school, but believed that these topics should have been addressed. They also believed that formal sex education should move away from abstinence-only or abstinence-forward education, and should not be rooted in fear-mongering. Gender impacted whether and what youth learned about sexual consent from parents and peers. While mothers talked to sons about using contraceptives and also about obtaining consent, they talked to daughters about negative sex outcomes, such as a ruined reputation or early pregnancy. Fathers were less likely to talk to their children about sex, especially daughters. Young men talked to peers about whether they had sex, while young women talked to their friends about the physical experience of having sex. Implications: Implications support the implementation of sex education in high schools that facilitates not only physically safe, but also emotionally healthy relationships, as well as an urgency for a cultural shift towards the acknowledgment of intimate behaviours as normative processes among adolescents.

<p>Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global epidemic associated with increased HIV exposure. We assessed the prevalence and correlates of HIV acquisition via forced sex among women living with HIV (WLWH) in Canada. Baseline questionnaire data were analyzed for WLWH (≥16 years) with data on self-reported mode of HIV acquisition, enrolled in a community-based cohort study in British Columbia, Ontario, and Québec. We assessed forced sex (childhood, adulthood) as a self-reported mode of HIV acquisition. Of 1,330 participants, the median age was 42 (interquartile range [IQR] = 35-50) years; 23.5% were Indigenous, 26.3% African/Caribbean/Black, 43% White, and 7.2% of Other ethnicities. Forced sex was the third dominant mode of HIV transmission at 16.5% (<em>n</em> = 219; vs. 51.6% consensual sex, 19.7% sharing needles, 5.3% blood transfusion, 3.8% perinatal, 1.3% contaminated needles, 0.4% other, 1.6% do not know/prefer not to answer). In multivariable analyses, significant correlates of HIV acquisition from forced versus consensual sex included legal status as a landed immigrant (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.99; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.12, 3.54]) or refugee (aOR = 3.62; 95% CI = [1.63, 8.04]) versus Canadian citizen; African/Caribbean/Black ethnicity versus Caucasian (aOR = 2.49; 95% CI = [1.43, 4.35]), posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (aOR = 3.00; 95% CI = [1.68, 5.38]), histories of group home residence (aOR = 2.40; 95% CI = [1.10, 5.23]), foster care (aOR = 2.18; 95% CI = [1.10, 4.34]), and having one child relative to having three or more children (aOR = 0.52; 95% CI = [0.31, 0.89]). GBV must be considered a distinct HIV risk factor; forced sex is a significant underrecognized risk factor and mode of women's HIV acquistion. Public health reporting systems can separate consensual and forced sex in reporting modes of HIV acquisition. Practitioners can engage in screening practices to meet client needs.</p>

<p>Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global epidemic associated with increased HIV exposure. We assessed the prevalence and correlates of HIV acquisition via forced sex among women living with HIV (WLWH) in Canada. Baseline questionnaire data were analyzed for WLWH (≥16 years) with data on self-reported mode of HIV acquisition, enrolled in a community-based cohort study in British Columbia, Ontario, and Québec. We assessed forced sex (childhood, adulthood) as a self-reported mode of HIV acquisition. Of 1,330 participants, the median age was 42 (interquartile range [IQR] = 35-50) years; 23.5% were Indigenous, 26.3% African/Caribbean/Black, 43% White, and 7.2% of Other ethnicities. Forced sex was the third dominant mode of HIV transmission at 16.5% (<em>n</em> = 219; vs. 51.6% consensual sex, 19.7% sharing needles, 5.3% blood transfusion, 3.8% perinatal, 1.3% contaminated needles, 0.4% other, 1.6% do not know/prefer not to answer). In multivariable analyses, significant correlates of HIV acquisition from forced versus consensual sex included legal status as a landed immigrant (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.99; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.12, 3.54]) or refugee (aOR = 3.62; 95% CI = [1.63, 8.04]) versus Canadian citizen; African/Caribbean/Black ethnicity versus Caucasian (aOR = 2.49; 95% CI = [1.43, 4.35]), posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (aOR = 3.00; 95% CI = [1.68, 5.38]), histories of group home residence (aOR = 2.40; 95% CI = [1.10, 5.23]), foster care (aOR = 2.18; 95% CI = [1.10, 4.34]), and having one child relative to having three or more children (aOR = 0.52; 95% CI = [0.31, 0.89]). GBV must be considered a distinct HIV risk factor; forced sex is a significant underrecognized risk factor and mode of women's HIV acquistion. Public health reporting systems can separate consensual and forced sex in reporting modes of HIV acquisition. Practitioners can engage in screening practices to meet client needs.</p>

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global epidemic associated with increased HIV exposure. We assessed the prevalence and correlates of HIV acquisition via forced sex among women living with HIV (WLWH) in Canada. Baseline questionnaire data were analyzed for WLWH (≥16 years) with data on self-reported mode of HIV acquisition, enrolled in a community-based cohort study in British Columbia, Ontario, and Québec. We assessed forced sex (childhood, adulthood) as a self-reported mode of HIV acquisition. Of 1,330 participants, the median age was 42 (interquartile range [IQR] = 35-50) years; 23.5% were Indigenous, 26.3% African/Caribbean/Black, 43% White, and 7.2% of Other ethnicities. Forced sex was the third dominant mode of HIV transmission at 16.5% (n = 219; vs. 51.6% consensual sex, 19.7% sharing needles, 5.3% blood transfusion, 3.8% perinatal, 1.3% contaminated needles, 0.4% other, 1.6% do not know/prefer not to answer). In multivariable analyses, significant correlates of HIV acquisition from forced versus consensual sex included legal status as a landed immigrant (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.99; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.12, 3.54]) or refugee (aOR = 3.62; 95% CI = [1.63, 8.04]) versus Canadian citizen; African/Caribbean/Black ethnicity versus Caucasian (aOR = 2.49; 95% CI = [1.43, 4.35]), posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (aOR = 3.00; 95% CI = [1.68, 5.38]), histories of group home residence (aOR = 2.40; 95% CI = [1.10, 5.23]), foster care (aOR = 2.18; 95% CI = [1.10, 4.34]), and having one child relative to having three or more children (aOR = 0.52; 95% CI = [0.31, 0.89]). GBV must be considered a distinct HIV risk factor; forced sex is a significant underrecognized risk factor and mode of women's HIV acquistion. Public health reporting systems can separate consensual and forced sex in reporting modes of HIV acquisition. Practitioners can engage in screening practices to meet client needs.

Until recently, any sex or sexual activity with a person under the age of 16 was criminalised, regardless of consent. All such incidents were considered criminal offences and needed to be reported to the police. This paper explores the knowledge, practices and perspectives of seventeen social workers in KwaZulu-Natal in relation to their mandatory reporting responsibilities on consensual underage sex. All social workers were clear about their reporting responsibilities regarding child abuse and non-consensual underage sex. However, findings suggest that social workers were less clear on the exact circumstances in which they ought to report consensual underage sex. Most participants indicated that they would make individual assessments about when to report underage consensual sex and sexual activity. Such decisions would be influenced by structural factors, the personal circumstances of affected children and the availability of other interventions to address early sexual activity. This study has shown that social workers are struggling to comply with mandatory reporting responsibilities involving underage consensual sex. Most social workers approach reporting of consensual sex and sexual activity differently to other reporting responsibilities and use a case-by-case approach. Given these findings, it is argued that parliament should consider reforming mandatory reporting provisions so that there is a distinction between the obligation to report consensual and non-consensual sexual offences against children. The mandatory obligation to report non-consensual sexual offences against children should remain but the obligation to report consensual sex or sexual activity should be discretionary and depend on the facts of each case.

The issue of sexual consent in marriage which is deeply problematic due to the persistence of socio-cultural constraints on women’s sexual agency and sexual decision-making has received less attention. Emerging evidence suggests that coerced, pressured and unwanted sexual activities are generally still common experiences of women. Research concerning male’s opinions on women’s consent to sex in marriage remains scarce. In this article, we explored men’s perceptions on sexual consent seeking and receiving within the context of marriage in order to expose the traditional gender imbalances, and interrogate the male-privileging ideals. Deploying a qualitative research approach, 8 Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with men aged 25-55years and in-depth interviews (IDI) with 12 key Informants were conducted to elicit data. Transcripts of each FGD and IDI were analyzed and major themes were developed. The study adopted the scripting and radical feminism as theoretical underpinnings. The findings revealed that the prevailing socio-cultural context in which men live has tremendous impact on their perceptions on women’s sexual rights and consent in marriage. Most men in the study understand sex in marriage as just one of the duties of a wife. Results also suggest that token resistance beliefs and alcohol consumption among men encourage forced sex. This study clearly shows that the issue of sexual coercion in marriage is fuelled by patriarchal control over women’s sexuality and requires serious attention in the study area. We therefore recommend cultural reorientation and enactment of laws to deal with the issue of non-consensual sex in marriage.

Given the lack of formal sexuality education in the United States, adolescents often rely on media, such as music, for information about sexual behavior, including sexual consent. However, popular music lyrics may perpetuate expectations for sexual behavior and consent communication that reflect unequal power between men and women, as well as sexual coercion. In this study, we used critical discourse analysis to examine the lyrics of two popular songs that have sparked public discussion of sexual consent and sexual coercion, “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “Blurred Lines.” Grounded in sexual socialization and sexual script theory, we identified three recurring patterns within both songs, including: (1) Traditional Sexual Scripts, (2) Gendered Societal Expectations, and (3) Consent Miscommunication. Guided by our findings, we provide suggestions for educators to combat messages of traditional gendered norms, rape myths, and sexual coercion within music lyrics and incorporate media literacy into sexuality education.

<h3></h3> In many jurisdictions, it is a crime for an HIV-positive person to have sex without first disclosing his or her serostatus. Such prosecutions persist in spite of substantial evidence that they do not reduce transmission or risky behaviour. I argue that an underexamined sexual autonomy rationale undergirds such prosecutions. U.S. and Canadian courts have held that nondisclosure of HIV violates a partner’s right to “informed” sexual consent, transforming otherwise consensual sex into a crime akin to rape. The sexual autonomy rationale draws on feminist insights about sexual coercion and consent, but has not yet been subjected to rigorous feminist critique. This Article presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of identifiable nondisclosure prosecutions in the United States, and advances a critical race feminist challenge to the premises and application of this rationale. Criminal law does not protect a general rule that sexual consent be “informed”: while HIV nondisclosure is a crime, almost all other forms of sexual deception_often presumed to be normative lies men tell to women_are lawful. HIV disclosure laws are also so under- and overinclusive with respect to transmission risk that they seem better designed to reduce anxiety about HIV than to reduce transmission. Furthermore, criminal protection of this interest is selective. Although most sexual transmission of HIV_and, likely, most nondisclosure_takes place between men, most defendants are men accused of nondisclosure to women. Racialized and sexual HIV stigma intersects with gendered assumptions about sexual victimisation so that, when a woman has noncommercial heterosex without knowing that her partner had HIV, she, unlike other uninformed sexual partners, may be seen as a victim of sexual crime.

How the treatment of sexual consent in erotic fanfiction functions as a form of cultural activism. Sexual consent is—at best—a contested topic in Western societies and cultures. The #MeToo movement has brought public attention to issues of sexual consent, revealing the endemic nature of sexual violence. Feminist academic approaches to sexual violence and consent are diverse and multidisciplinary—and yet consent itself is significantly undertheorized. In Dubcon, Milena Popova points to a community that has been considering issues of sex, power, and consent for many years: writers and readers of fanfiction. Their nuanced engagement with sexual consent, Popova argues, can shed light on these issues in ways not available to either academia or journalism. Popova explains that the term “dubcon” (short for “dubious consent”) was coined by the fanfiction community to make visible the gray areas between rape and consent—for example, in situations where the distribution of power may limit an individual's ability to give meaningful consent to sex. Popova offers a close reading of three fanfiction stories in the Omegaverse genre, examines the “arranged marriage” trope, and discusses the fanfiction community's response when a sports star who was a leading character in RPF (real person fiction) was accused of rape. Proposing that fanfiction offers a powerful discursive resistance on issues of rape and consent that challenges dominant discourses about gender, romance, sexuality, and consent, Popova shows that fanfiction functions as a form of cultural activism.

The conceptualization of sexual violence and consent varies across cultures, but previous research has focused primarily on high-income countries. Less is known about perceptions of sexual consent and its role in romantic relationships in middle- to lower-income countries. The current study explored how young adults in India – in the absence of formal sex education programs and with sex being a socially taboo subject – learn about sex and consent. In-depth interviews were conducted with 32 young adults (male = 15, female = 17) between the ages of 18 and 28. A thematic analysis was conducted to find recurring themes and sub-themes in the data. Findings highlighted how young adults perceive sexual consent, the role of consent communication in adults’ exercising sexual agency, and the consequences of disregarding consent for individuals’ health and their relationships. Participants offered varied definitions of consent, including binary (yes/no) definitions, those shaped by past experiences of sexual violence, and those illustrating a deeper understanding of consent. Furthermore, participants described that sexual consent is important for establishing trust and comfort in romantic relationships, deeming it necessary for a healthy relationship and the health of both partners. The findings of this study provided insight into how young adults perceive sexual consent and how these perceptions are shaped in the Indian context. This knowledge can be used to develop culturally tailored interventions and advocate for sexual education programs to promote ethical sexual behaviors and reduce sexual violence in India.

ObjectiveTo test whether acute alcohol intoxication and alcohol expectancy affects how accurately women remember consensual and non-consensual sexual activity that occurred during an interactive hypothetical dating scenario.DesignA balanced placebo randomized study that varied alcohol dose (mean Breath Alcohol Content; BrAC = 0.06%) and alcohol expectancy prior to participants encoding a hypothetical interactive rape scenario was implemented. Participants could elect to consent to sexual activity with a male partner in the hypothetical scenario. If they stopped consenting, non-consensual sexual intercourse (i.e., rape) was described. Seven days later, participants’ memory for consensual and non-consensual sexual activity in the scenario was tested.Main outcome measuresMemory accuracy, confidence, and feelings of intoxication.ResultsA total of 90 females (M age = 20.5, SD = 2.2) were tested regarding their memory accuracy for the consensual and non-consensual sexual activities in the scenario. A multi-level logistic regression predicting memory accuracy for the perpetrator’s behaviors during the rape indicated no effect of alcohol intoxication. However, a main effect of alcohol expectancy was found, whereby participants who expected to consume alcohol, compared to those who did not, recalled the perpetrator’s behaviors during the rape more accurately. A second regression predicting memory accuracy for consensual sexual activity found no main effects for alcohol intoxication or alcohol expectancy. Participants recalled consensual sexual activity with a high degree of accuracy. Calibration analyses indicated that accuracy increased with confidence level, regardless of intoxication level or alcohol expectancy condition, but that women tended to be overconfident in general.ConclusionThis study provides an important test of how accurately women remember consensual and non-consensual sexual activities. The accuracy of this information is important for forensic medical examinations and police investigations following an allegation of sexual assault. Increased memory accuracy was found for offence details when participants expected to consume alcohol, suggesting there may be important differences in attentional processes (e.g., hypervigilance) depending on whether threat is present. Further research is necessary to investigate memory for sexual violence in real-world settings and to test methods for ascertaining the most complete and reliable accounts.