Sexual Autonomy Research Articles

Sterilization of Men with Developmental Disabilities: A Historical Perspective and Modern Conundrum

The development of the vasectomy as a form of permanent sterilization was first described in the 1900s. 1 Reilly PR Involuntary sterilization in the United States: a surgical solution. Q Rev Biol. 1987; 62: 153-170https://doi.org/10.1086/415404 Crossref PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar However, the indications for vasectomy were vastly different than those in contemporary practice. Initial series were performed on institutionalized persons including criminals, the “mentally defective,” and the “insane.” 2 Reilly PR Eugenics and involuntary sterilization: 1907–2015. Annu Rev Genom Hum Genet. 2015; 16: 351-368https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-genom-090314-024930 Crossref PubMed Scopus (40) Google Scholar This practice became widespread and ushered in the Eugenics Movement of the early 20th century, aiming to ensure the health of the human race by eliminating “defective genes.” 2 Reilly PR Eugenics and involuntary sterilization: 1907–2015. Annu Rev Genom Hum Genet. 2015; 16: 351-368https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-genom-090314-024930 Crossref PubMed Scopus (40) Google Scholar Following World War II and the disapproval of Nazi Eugenics, state sterilization programs rapidly declined. 1 Reilly PR Involuntary sterilization in the United States: a surgical solution. Q Rev Biol. 1987; 62: 153-170https://doi.org/10.1086/415404 Crossref PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar Now, laws protecting reproductive freedom of vulnerable populations forbid federal funding for involuntary sterilization of incompetent persons. 3 Hoangmai P Barron L In the patient's best interest ? Revisiting sexual autonomy and sterilization of the developmentally disabled. West J Med. 2001; 175: 280-283 Crossref PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar

Negotiating HIV and pregnancy prevention and sexual pleasure amongst heterosexual men and women in South Africa

Heterosexual sex, foremost its gender-power dynamics, is embedded in and informed by the socio-historical context in which it occurs. While safer sexual communication skills are well documented as key to the success of sexual and reproductive health programming and education, communication skills about the positive aspects of sexuality such as sexual pleasure are often limited if not absent. Using data from in-depth qualitative interviews with men and women aged 26–39 from a diverse set of backgrounds in Cape Town, South Africa, this study examines the ways in which gender-power dynamics manifest in negotiations of HIV and pregnancy prevention and sexual pleasure in the intimate spaces of heterosex. Findings fall under three themes: 1) condom negotiation as a replacement for other aspects of sexual communication; 2) self-efficacy in negotiating prevention and negotiating one’s own sexual pleasure; and 3) the integral role men play in heterosexual encounters in the facilitation of women's sexual autonomy and women's sexual pleasure. This study contributes to research not only examining the positive and more nuanced realities of heterosex in the South African context, but also argues for the need to integrate positive aspects of sexuality into sexual and reproductive health programming in general.

An Integrative Literature Review on Sex Education Programs for Korean College Students

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to synthesize the literature on the sex education programs for Korean college students and to provide a basis for developing effective sex education programs for this population. Methods: Whittemore and Knafl's integrative review method guided this review of studies conducted from 2000 to 2019. Articles were identified through three electronic databases and scholarly web sites. Fifteen articles met the inclusion criteria. Results: Three studies were descriptive, and 12 described interventions. In most of the reviewed studies, sexual knowledge, sexual attitudes, and sexual autonomy improved after sex education interventions. Before providing sex education, the researchers assessed student's needs for sex education and the various topics provided through sex education programs. Conclusion: When developing sex education programs, we need to a) focus on practical sexual knowledge including contraceptive methods, b) provide repeated and continuous education of a sufficient duration, c) provide comprehensive sex education beyond biological sex, and d) use various teaching methods to allow participants to gain a better understanding. Additionally, sex education should be conducted by experts such as nurses or trained educators to provide systematic and comprehensive education for young adults.

Sexual Expression in Alberta's Continuing Care Homes: Capacity, Consent, and Co-decision-making.

In this article, we explore the role of substitute decision-makers (SDMs) in matters of sexual expression for continuing care residents with diminished cognitive capacity. We examine how Alberta's current use of SDMs can enable an "all-or-none" approach to competence, wherein a person either has capacity to make all decisions or is incapable of making any. Three factors facilitate an environment in which this approach can influence residents' sexual expression. These include the wording of current legislation, lack of resources for SDMs, and relational dynamics between SDMs and care staff. We provide a critical review of existing legislation and empirical evidence of its challenges in practice. Though we focus on the Alberta context, there is reason to believe that similar issues persist in other Western jurisdictions. We offer several recommendations for how we can better support residents' sexual autonomy in continuing care and avoid pitfalls of the "all-or-none" approach to competence.

Neonatal, infant, and child mortality among women exposed to intimate partner violence in East Africa: a multi-country analysis

BackgroundMost neonatal, infant, and child deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) is highest in the world. Despite these facts, research regarding whether the two are associated is limited. The main objective was to examine associations between IPV amongst East African women and risk of death among their neonates, infants, and children, as well as related variables.MethodsAnalysis was conducted on data drawn from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted by ICF Macro/MEASURE DHS in five East African countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The analytical sample included 11,512 women of reproductive age (15–49 years). The outcome variables, described by proportions and frequencies, were the presence or absence of neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality. Our variable of interest, intimate partner violence, was a composite variable of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; chi-square tests were used to analyze its relationship with categorical variables. Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) were also used in linking sexual autonomy to independent variables.ResultsChildren born to women who experienced IPV were significantly more likely to die as newborns (aOR = 1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.4–2.2) and infants (aOR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.6–2.2), and they were more likely to die by the age of five (aOR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.01–1.55). Socioeconomic indicators including area of residence, wealth index, age of mother/husband, religion, level of education, employment status, and mass media usage were also significantly associated with IPV. After regression modelling, mothers who were currently using contraceptives were determined less likely to have their children die as newborns (aOR = 0.5, 95% CI: 0.3–0-7), as infants (aOR = 0.5, 95% CI: 0.3–06), and by age five (aOR = 0.4, 95% CI: 02–0.6).ConclusionUnderstanding IPV as a risk indicator for neonatal, infant, and child deaths can help in determining appropriate interventions. IPV against women should be considered an urgent priority within programs and policies aimed at maximizing survival of infants and children in East Africa and the wellbeing and safety of their mothers.

Cross-cultural sexual narratives and gendered reception in Republican China

ABSTRACT This article examines nonfiction sexual narratives inspired by foreign thought in Republican China. It highlights female viewpoints to recover their hidden voices in history and shows the socio-cultural significance of the gendered reception of cross-cultural theories. I focus on three foreign female thinkers – Ellen Key, Emma Goldman, and Alexandra Kollontai – whose works stood for different schools of free love and drew numerous adherents in China. My study shows a nuanced but telling difference in the focuses of sexual narratives along gender lines. Whereas male writers sought to modernize marriage and liberate sexuality from socio-eugenic perspectives, female writers pursued sexual autonomy from relatively more personal stances. The rhetorical feature of Chinese female essayists, I argue, was essentially iconoclastic towards sexual conventions and yet reticent about free sexuality, as opposed to the progressive eloquence often shown in male writings about sexual matters. In sum, this article illustrates how Chinese female essayists retained gender propriety when openly addressing intimate matters, while male writers glamorized free sexuality and free love as a panacea for nation-strengthening and social/racial progress in a cross-cultural context.

The Case for a New Statutory Regime Addressing Revenge Porn in India: Exploring the Disputed Terrain From a Feminist Perspective

The recent rise of online feminist activism, including the #MeToo Movement has been a catalyst for driving attention globally to issues concerning women and their everyday experiences of violence and harassment in the virtual world. However, in a developing country like India, the severity of a crime like non-consensual pornography was brought into public gaze only after a path breaking decision by a District Court in West Bengal in a ‘revenge porn’ case, namely, State of West Bengal v. Animesh Boxi ( hereinafter referred to as ‘Boxi’). The NCRB 2017 data shows that almost 6.7% of cyber-crime cases registered were for the motive of sexual exploitation. While men have often been victims of non- consensual pornography through unauthorized sharing of explicit pictures of themselves, revenge porn predominately impacts women. Not only are women more likely to be victims of revenge porn, but the effects are also far greater on women due to socially constructed belief that women who are victims of sexual assault must have provoked the incident. Furthermore, the victims’ sexual autonomy is criticised since it is believed that women should not have sexual impulses but the viewers and even the general public, who witness the crime, are reluctant to accept that an image might be shared with a partner voluntarily but not for public dissemination. Women are expected to take responsibility for their lawful personal choices rather than placing responsibility on the perpetrator of their inexcusable action. This form of non-consensual pornography not only institutionalises male supremacy but also sends a message that the survivor deserved the consequences while the perpetrator rightfully disseminated the intimate media, thus further promoting objectification of the female body. The fact that Boxi brings with it the first conviction in India, throws light upon the larger picture of how survivors who do not fit ‘ideal victim’ stereotypes are never brought to justice. The Hon’ble Court has vehemently termed this gender-based violence as ‘virtual rape’ highlighting the fact that it somewhere has a connection with the socially constructed expectation of gender. The lack of scholarship in this particular area resonates the struggle faced in recognising domestic violence in India and subsequently bringing about a specific legislation. Not only have allegations of revenge porn been dismissed like domestic violence, but revenge porn is often a form of domestic violence, rather intimate partner violence, in and of itself, with abusive partners threatening to expose explicit pictures of their significant other as a form of control over them. Drawing on the example of Boxi, the author makes an attempt to offer a fresh perspective on the efficacy of the existing legal regime by putting forth feminist legal arguments and exploring the possibility of situating such an act within the scope of civil remedies and criminal prosecution available for copyright violation (considering the fact that most images clicked these days are ‘selfies’) and defamation, respectively. The paper is designed to challenge the underlying normativity that operates as a dominant thinking pertaining to an ‘ideal victim’ of intimate partner violence and examine the ‘rape-shield’ theory of evidence vis-a-vis ‘revenge porn’ since the Court has equated the offence to ‘virtual rape’. The author also makes an attempt to inquire how women and men live through the meaning of their experiences/ understanding of this issue by recording responses of 100 participants (between the age group of 15-40 years) vide a structured closed questionnaire in order to demonstrate that the hegemony of sexual stereo-typing not only resides in the legal but very much in the social as well. While various feminist advocates have been mooting for introducing a specific statute, the author offers a close appreciation of how it might not be the most plausible solution to curb the menace.

REDEEMING PAUL? DISRUPTIVE MASCULINITY, SEXUAL AUTONOMY, AND SEXUAL FREEDOM IN 1 CORINTHIANS 7

Sex and gender ethical norms, especially those found in Pauline texts, continue to inform sexual and reproductive choices of contemporary Christians because Christians understand Scripture to be regulative for their day-to-day living in the present-day society, despite the temporal and cultural separation of our world from the world of the New Testament. To avoid the impasse created by the temporal and cultural separation, people often resort to “but it was a different time and context” argument. However, what if Paul was actually being counter-cultural and counter-temporal, offering more radical perspectives than those that have been promoted as the norm through simple and face-value interpretations. This essay suggests precisely that – that a deeper investigation of the rhetorical performance of Paul’s instructions to, and his relationship with the Corinthians, could produce transgressive and possibly transforming interpretations. What seems on the surface to be Paul’s views on sexual autonomy (via singleness), sexual purity (via marriage), and gender hierarchy (through reinscribing masculine roles) can all actually be regarded as subverted in 1 Corinthians 7. Drawing on a sociorhetorical gendered analytic to read these texts, I will demonstrate that Paul’s views on sex reflect an implicit gendered argument that plays a role in constructing and representing (un)masculinity, sexual autonomy, and perhaps even sexual freedom. This reading certainly offers a departure from traditional Pauline readings and calls for a discernment regarding who the real Paul may have actually been – perhaps even calling “for the real Paul to ‘please, stand up!’”

Magnitude of Sexual Violence and Associated Factors among Female Students in Jigjiga University, Eastern Ethiopia

Background: Sexual violence is any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work. Sexual violence is an extreme restriction of the sexual and reproductive autonomy of women and the problem was endemic in communities around the world. However, there is a limited evidence of the magnitude of sexual violence and associated factors among University students in, Ethiopia which necessitated this study to be conducted. Material and Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study design was conducted. Multi stage sampling technique was used. List of all female students from the selected departments were the sampling frame. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaire by six data collection facilitators. The collected data entered into Epi Data version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 20. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were done to identify factors associated with the sexual violence. Results: Lifetime sexual violence was found to be 36.5%. However, 17% of respondents reported experiencing sexual violence since entering university and in the current academic year. Life time sexual violence was positively associated with rural childhood residence [(AOR=2.931, 95% CI:(1.54, 5.57)], having regular boyfriend [(AOR=1.997, 95% CI:(1.12, 3.57)], maternal education [(AOR=2.113, 95% CI:(1.04, 4.30)], alcohol consumption [(AOR=2.792, 95% CI:(1.46, 5.33)], having friends who drink regularly [(AOR=2.274, 95% CI:(1.05, 4.93)], use of substances like cocaine [(AOR=3.785, 95% CI:(1.12,12.75)] and being sexually active [(AOR=2.733, 95% CI:(1.44, 5.21)] while it was negatively associated with discussing sexual issues with parents [(AOR=0.151, 95% CI:(0.084, 0.269)]. Conclusions: Prevalence of sexual violence was high. The university and other stakeholders should take measures on those who sell substances and alcohol around the campus.

The impact of the ones sexuality and autonomy awareness on the insomnia severity in patients with anxiety neurotic disorders

To evaluate an impact of perception of ones sexuality and autonomy on the level of insomnia in patients with neurotic/anxiety disorders. A sample included 123 (93 women and 30 men) patients with neurotic/anxiety disorders (F40, F41, F43, F45) in the age from 25 to 50 years old, anxiety was the main syndrome in the clinical structure of the disorder. Test battery included Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index for the subjective sleep quality evaluation, Insomnia Severity index for stratification of patients into groups with different insomnia level. Anxiety was evaluated with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. Personality traits, sexuality and sovereignty of psychological space were assessed with the G. Ammon Ego-structure test and the Sovereignty of the individual psychological space questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis was used to study the interrelationship between insomnia severity and psychological characteristics. Insomnia severity index was chosen as the dependent variable. An analysis of the regression model has shown the increase in insomnia index with the simultaneous augmentation of the following scales «Physical body sovereignty», «Sovereignty of objects», «Destructive aggression», «Deficient aggression», «Constructive narcissism», and decrease of the scales «Territory sovereignty», «Deficient narcissism», «Constructive sexuality». The study results imply the importance of the use of the level of sexual functioning and autonomy as the marker of identity maturity for psychotherapeutic targets in the treatment of neurotic/anxiety disorders. The use of anxiety and insomnia as the main complaints can be explained by its societal approval and need further active evaluation by the specialist for the successful psychotherapeutic treatment.

Homofobia y ley penal: la homosexualidad como paradigma de peligrosidad social en el Derecho penal español (1933-1995)

The Ley de Vagos y Maleantes (1933) constitutes the first systematic treatment of social dangerousness in Spanish law. It remained in force until 1970, when it was replaced by the Ley de Peligrosidad y Rehabilitacion Social, which remained in force until 1995. Thus, the concept of social dangerousness and its consequences, the safety measures, were legally and positively recognized in three politically incompatible regimes: the Republic, the Franco dictatorship and constitutional democracy. Beyond the differences of the successive normative frameworks, homosexuality was considered a paradigm of dangerousness, and as such was defined, labeled and excluded. Each political model contributed with its own ideological argument, but the common result was - if it isn’t still- the exclusion of a collective whose only dangerousness lay in the fact of understanding sexual autonomy in a different way from the hegemonic stereotypes in each case. The mechanisms of discipline and control were dressed up in legal-criminal clothing, but the definition of their nuclear assumption- dangerousness - and the implementation of the sanctioning system - safety measures - were always based on principles that were incompatible with those that characterize democratic criminal law.

The Cut in Conflict: Female Genital Mutilation and the Concept of Religious Violence in the Western World

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is both a concurrent and historical practice, manifesting in geographically diverse regions and across different religious groups. Wherever it is practiced, the ritual cutting of female genitals is an act designed to undermine a woman’s personal sexual autonomy and identity, as well as reify patriarchal power relations. Although historically practiced in Islamic communities, records of female genital mutilation predate Islam, and the validity of Quranic references to the practice are contested by modern Islamic scholars. The recent incidents of FGM reported to have occurred in expatriate Muslim communities in Western European and North American nations reveal an ancient tribal practice that has acclimated itself to notions of modern Western medical authority. In fact, there is evidence for the presence of FGM in Western culture since the 19th century, in a context distinct from Muslim communities or Islamic religious influence; the history and current iterations of FGM in the West conform closely to Foucauldian theories of sex and power, and echo Foucault’s assertion, discussed in The History of Sexuality, that power relations must successfully conceal their own mechanisms in order to maintain viability within society. Consequently, patterns associated with twenty first century FGM analogize the construction of “religious violence” as a cultural category in Western discourse. When gendered violence is categorized as “religious,” it is inevitably subjected to a process of othering that serves to further embed its practices as part of the collective social reality.

Deceptive Sexual Relations: A Theory of Criminal Liability

Abstract Many common law jurisdictions criminalise penetrative and non-penetrative deceptive sexual relations. Often, they prohibit that conduct under their principal sexual offences, namely rape, sexual/indecent assault etc. This article challenges that practice via two linked processes: criminalisation and fair labelling, respectively. First, it argues that, whilst deceptive sexual relations (with one exception) are equally harmful to a victim’s right to sexual autonomy as the relations proscribed by the principal sexual offences, they represent a different wrong. Secondly, it contends that this view entails the creation of separate sexual offences targeting penetrative and non-penetrative deceptive sexual relations. This would better signal to the criminal law’s audiences the distinct wrongdoing inherent in these relations. Such labelling becomes critical at the point of conviction given its effects on defendants and other parties.

Female Sexuality in Contemporary Pakistani English Fiction

Female sexuality has remained a taboo subject in Pakistani literary and cultural representations. However, a considerable shift has occurred in contemporary Pakistani English fiction. Focusing on female bodily behaviour, the fiction explicates multiple shades of female sexual relations and experiences outside the cultural and religious norms in an unusually direct and explicit fashion. This study analyses the way Pakistani fiction, written in English, responds to the variety of different ideologies imposed upon women’s bodies and sexuality. It analyses some key sexual experiences of pubertal sexual awakening, postmarital sex, women’s urge for proactive sexual intercourse, and disavowal of motherhood, pregnancy and birthing. The collective representation of female sexuality in each case embodies a transgressive experience outside the shame/shameless, licit/illicit binaries. However, the representation, despite its explicitness, does not constitute in any way women’s sexual autonomy against the predominant masculine discourses. The issues have been analyzed within the framework of debates on the female body, heterosexuality, the male gaze and commodity fetishism.

A Rights-Based Approach to Youth Sexting: Challenging Risk, Shame, and the Denial of Rights to Bodily and Sexual Expression Within Youth Digital Sexual Culture

Educational interventions on youth sexting often focus on individual sexters or would-be sexters, and are driven by the aim of encouraging young people to abstain from producing and sharing personal sexual images. This approach has been criticised for failing to engage with the complex sociocultural context to youth sexting. Drawing upon qualitative group and one-to-one interviews with 41 young people aged 14 to 18 living in a county in south-east England, I explore young people’s perceptions and practices surrounding sexting. By taking a grounded theory approach to the research, I reveal how young people’s shaming of digitally mediated sexual self-expression shaped and was shaped by a denial of rights to bodily and sexual autonomy and integrity. This denial of rights underpinned harmful sexting practices, including violations of privacy and consent, victim blaming, and bullying. I conclude that responses to youth sexting should attend to this broader youth cultural context, emphasise the roles and responsibilities of bystanders, and encourage a collectivist digital sexual ethics based upon rights to one’s body and freedom from harm (Albury, New Media and Society 19(5):713–725, 2017; Dobson and Ringrose, Sex Education 16(1):8–21, 2015).

A Warm Nest or 'The Talk'? Exploring and Explaining Relations Between General and Sexuality-Specific Parenting and Adolescent Sexual Emotions.

The aim of the study was to explore and explain two hypothesized indirect longitudinal pathways and investigate gender differences in linking parenting factors to adolescents' sexual emotions. The general pathway expected higher parent-adolescent relationship quality to be related to more positive and less negative sexual emotions through higher adolescent global self-esteem. The sexuality-specific pathway expected more frequent parent-adolescent sexual communication to be related to more positive and less negative sexual emotions through higher adolescent sexual autonomy. Online questionnaire data were used from three waves of Project STARS, a longitudinal study on adolescent sexual development. The analysis sample included 248 sexually experienced adolescents (M= 14.74 years at baseline). Adolescents reported on the quality of their parent-adolescent relationship, how often they discussed sexual topics with their parents, their global self-esteem, sexual autonomy, and experience of positive (happy, proud, and loved) and negative (dirty, ashamed, and guilty) emotions after having sex. Overall, adolescents experienced more positive than negative emotions after sex. Mplus path model results indicated that, first, higher parent-adolescent relationship quality was related to higher adolescent global self-esteem, but global self-esteem was not related to sexual emotions. Second, more frequent parent-adolescent sexual communication was related to more adolescent sexual autonomy, and more sexual autonomy was related to more positive and less negative sexual emotions. However, no significant indirect effects, nor gender differences were found. Adolescents' sexual autonomy appears to play a particularly important role in how they experience having sex. Concrete suggestions for how the development of adolescents' sexual autonomy may be supported are discussed.

Virtually Rape: Should Cyber Sexual Offensiveness Constitute Rape?

Rape is the most severe sexual offense, involving one of the most feared and reviled acts a person can inflict on another. But what makes something rape? Initially, only penial-vagina forceful penetration; then, other forceful penial penetrations were added, oral and anal; and later the forceful insertion of inanimate objects as well. The requirement of using force lost its exclusiveness and much of its normative power, paving the way for other kinds of rape: sex by non-forceful coercion, sex by sedation, sex with incompetent victims, sex by fraud, and other forms of problematic sex. The normative debate about each form is ongoing, and in a manner of speaking, rape is a limitless idea. Where will the rape offense go next? Cyberspace, apparently. The Israeli Supreme Court has recently affirmed convictions of rape performed by distant words. The perpetrators conversed with children, teenagers and adult women online, using fraud and blackmail to manipulate them into masturbation and self-penetration. This groundbreaking judicial development is the inspiration to a normative analysis, revolving around Western notions of rape. Should such ill-intended communications constitute rape? The article will normatively scrutinize the virtual rape thesis. It will analytically deconstruct the normative notion of rape into three facets, and examine each separately: the physics of the offensive scenario; the settings thereof, the manner in which sexual autonomy is violated; and finally, the matter of proper criminal labeling. It will conclude that while sexual autonomy is indeed under attack in cyberspace, the framework of rape is unsuitable to handle this form of offensiveness.

Pressure and Persuasion: Young Fijian Women's Experiences of Sexual and Reproductive Coercion in Romantic Relationships.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a violation of women's human rights and dramatically increases women's vulnerability to sexual and reproductive health morbidities. This article examines young iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) women's experiences of, and responses to, nonphysical forms of coercion in romantic relationships. It draws on ethnographic research with young unmarried women attending university in Suva, Fiji. Young women disclosed experiencing a continuum of coercive behaviors, including verbal pressure, deception, and manipulation by male partners to initiate sexual intercourse, unprotected sex, and unsafe abortions. Findings indicate an urgent need to address IPV within premarital relationships in Fiji to promote young women's sexual and reproductive health and autonomy.

Misperceptions and stereotypes in nursing care for sexually transmitted infections and domestic violence: a qualitative exploratory study

Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STI) and domestic violence (DV) are common healthcare issues experienced worldwide with DV increasing the risk of acquiring STI/s. Although nurses are well-placed to provide care for both issues, little is known about how and whether nurses perceive STI risk within the context of DV and whether this informs nursing care.Aim: To explore nurses’ perceptions of STI acquisition within the context of DV and whether this informs nursing care.Design: Qualitative exploratory descriptive design.Methods: Eight participant narratives were collected from Australian Registered Nurses (RNs), with 1–17 years of clinical practice in varied settings. Participants were required to be registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and converse in English. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken via face-to-face, telephone and computer-mediated communication (CMC). Thematic analysis was guided by Braun and Clarke (2006).Results: Three themes emerged from the data: ‘Perceptions: They don’t talk about it, ‘Stereotypes: Just that stigma and ‘Provision of Care for STIs/DV: Physical and emotional. Participants held various perceptions associated with STIs and DV including the covert nature of both issues, the care of STIs within the context of DV, and how the nature of nursing care differed between STIs and DV.Conclusions: Nurses need to recognise the impact that nurse perceptions and stereotyping have on disclosures and provision of care for STIs, particularly in the context of DV. Consideration is also needed in relation to sexual and reproductive autonomy, the impact on disclosure and provision of care.

The Impact of Lifelong Family Care on Family Caregivers’ Perceptions of the Sexuality of Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities in the Western Cape of South Africa

This paper presents findings of a constructivist grounded theory study conducted within the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The study explored how family caregivers respond to sexuality issues of their young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). Indepth interviews and focus group discussions were used as methods of data collection. Twenty-five family caregivers participated in the study. The family caregivers’ perceptions highlight how the lifelong care relationship and the living arrangements attached to it may become a hindrance to people with ID exercising sexual autonomy. The family caregivers felt responsible for the young adults’ behavior and determined what was appropriate or not with regards to the young adults’ sexuality. Concerns about the young adults’ future care were central in the family caregivers’ responses. We conclude that without the appropriate forms of support for both the young adults and their caregivers, the young adults will continue to be policed by the family caregivers and not have choices and opportunities to enjoy and express their sexuality. The support interventions needed should alleviate the burden of care from the family caregivers and also ensure independent living and more choices for the young adults with ID.