Choose any progressive organisation or radical milieu today and you'll likely find an ongoing debate about sexual harassment, sexual assault, accountability processes, the building of 'safer spaces' for victims, and related issues. That's the world Cindy Crabb emerged from several years ago with two important interventions: zines that became important guides to navigating troubled waters. Adapted and expanded from these two popular zines, Learning Good Consent is an indispensable guide to both preventing sexual abuse and helping its survivors to heal.
This is the first book to examine the relationship between sexual and psychological functioning in terms of its effects on patterns of sexual practice over the lifespan. The authors explore: the impact of both voluntary and involuntary sexual experiences in childhood on adolescent sexual activities; the consequences of childhood and adolescent sexual experiences on women's sexual behaviour in adulthood; and the influence of adult sexual abuse.
The pressing need to break the silence on non-consensual sex among young people – an issue shrouded by denial, underreporting and stigma – is self-evident. Despite the growing body of research regarding young people’s sexual behaviours, the study of coercive sexual experiences has generally been overlooked by both researchers and national programmes. Available evidence has been scattered and unrepresentative and despite this evidence, non-consensual sex among young people is perceived to be a rare occurrence. This volume dispels any such misconception. It presents a disturbing picture of non-consensual sex among girls as well as boys, and among married as well as unmarried young women in a variety of settings. This volume documents, moreover, the expanse of non-consensual experiences that young people face – from unwanted touch to forced penetrative sex and gang rape. Although the focus is on young females, the volume also sheds light on the experience of young males as both victims and perpetrators. This pioneering volume highlights key factors placing young people at risk, whilst outlining the significant distinctive health and social implications they face. Sex Without Consent also documents the unsupportive – and sometimes abusive or negligent – roles of families, teachers, health care providers and law enforcement agents, outlines promising efforts intended to prevent non-consensual sex or support survivors, and argues for profound changes in norms and values that tolerate or encourage non-consensual sex. The editors, based at the Population Council (New Delhi), the World Health Organization (Geneva), and Family Health International (Virginia) argue compellingly for a radical review and reform of existing programmes designed to prevent this kind of abuse and to support young survivors of sexual trauma in the developing world. Addressing the magnitude, determinants and consequences of sex without consent, this volume provides evidence-based directions for programming.
Rape in marriage is a global problem affecting millions of women -- it is still legal in many countries and was only criminalized in all U.S. states in 1993. In much of the world, marital rape is too often understood as an oxymoron due to the fact that the ideology of permanent consent underlies the legal and cultural definitions of sex in marriage. From Vietnam to Guatemala to South Africa and beyond, this volume examines how cultural, legal, public health, and human rights policies and practices impact intimate partner violence. While legal and cultural conceptions of marital rape vary widely -- from criminal assault to wifely duty -- this volume offers evidence from different societies that forced sex undermines the physical and psychological well-being of the women who experience it, regardless of their cultural context. Globally, the nature of marriage is changing and so are notions of individual choice, love, intimacy, and rigid gender roles. Marital Rape documents wide ranging and fluid understandings of sex, consent, and rape in marriage; such an array of perspectives demands an international and interdisciplinary approach to the study of sex and gender-based violence. This text brings together an international group of scholars from the fields of anthropology, sociology, criminology, law, public health, and human rights; their work points to the importance of understanding the lived experience of sexual violence for the design of effective and culturally sensitive public policy and practice.
This open access book examines the ways that consent operates in contemporary culture, suggesting it is a useful starting point to respectful relationships. This work, however, seeks to delve deeper, into the more complicated aspects of sexual consent. It examines the ways meaningful consent is difficult, if not impossible, in relationships that involve intimate partner violence or family violence. It considers the way vulnerable communities need access to information on consent. It highlights the difficulties of consent and reproductive rights, including the use (and abuse) of contraception and abortion. Finally, it considers the ways that young women are reshaping narratives of sexual assault and consent, as active agents both online and offline. Though this work considers victimisation, it also pays careful attention to the ways vulnerable groups take up their rights and understand and practice consent in meaningful ways.
In the era of #MeToo and mass incarceration, The Feminist and the Sex Offender makes a powerful feminist case for accountability without punishment and sexual safety and pleasure without injustice. With analytical clarity and narrative force, The Feminist and the Sex Offender contends with two problems that are typically siloed in the era of #MeToo and mass incarceration: sexual and gender violence, on the one hand, and the state’s unjust, ineffective, and soul-destroying response to it on the other. Is it possible to confront the culture of abuse? Is it possible to hold harm-doers accountable without recourse to a criminal justice system that redoubles injuries, fails survivors, and retrenches the conditions that made such abuse possible? Drawing on interviews, extensive research, reportage, and history, The Feminist and the Sex Offender develops an intersectional feminist approach to ending sexual violence. It maps with considerable detail the unjust sex offender regime while highlighting the alternatives we urgently need.
For many years, "no means no" served as the standard for whether sexual consent is granted, but valid concerns have called for an expansion of this standard. Factors that could prevent someone from rejecting an unwanted advance include coercion and intoxication, making the concept of verbal consent muddy. The debate over whether this standard should be replaced and what should replace it has brought forth various possible solutions, with some arguing that only enthusiastic verbal consent will do, and others asserting that this expectation is unrealistic. Factors like age, positions of trust and authority, and mental and emotional conditions and disabilities also factor into the discussion. The well-balanced articles found here will provide your readers with an intelligent understanding of this topic.
Considered a classic in its field, this comprehensive guide will help survivors of sexual abuse improve their relationships and discover the joys of sexual intimacy. Wendy Maltz takes survivors step-by-step through the recovery process using groundbreaking exercises and techniques. Based on the author's clinical work, interviews, and workshops, this guide is filled with first-person accounts of women and men at every stage of sexual healing. This compassionate resource helps survivors to: Identify the sexual effects of sexual abuse Eliminate negative sexual behavior and resolve specific problems Gain control over upsetting automatic reactions to touch and sex Develop a healthy sexual self-concept
Despite three decades of intense scrutiny and repeated attempts at ambitious reform, the laws regarding rape and sexual harassment still fail to protect women from sexual overreaching and abuse. This original, provocative, and enlightening work shows the need to refocus on laws against rape and to create a new system of legal safeguards against interference with sexual autonomy.
First publisghed in 1998, this book Mark Cowling attempts to make sense of this massive discrepancy, much of which is now based on how 'date rape' is understood. After a review of the way rape is dealt with in Britain he examines the survey evidence. One major issue he identifies is that of the boundary between rape and normal sex. Arguing this cannot be sharply defined he uses philosophical techniques to look at the issues involved, particularly those of communicative sexuality and of the imbalance of power between men and women. The implications for philosophy, the law and psychological research are considered.
