Finding the Balance: Intoxication and Consent

Clough, Amanda

doi:10.1007/s10991-019-09222-2

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In contexts or environments in which non-verbal communication is normative -which, in this study, included chemsex, bar, sex party spaces -another person's capacity to consent may be more difficult to interpret. That is, because judging only the behavioral actions of another person who has consumed a substance may only be assessing their technical ability to express a preference (or lack thereof) and not other facets of capacity to consent, such as their ability to appreciate the risks and consequences of sexual engagement (Clough, 2019). In sexually driven public spaces where substance use occurs, people may feel that it is permissible to initiate sexual contact without explicit consent from another person due to broader assumptions about the sexual availability of people who are consuming substances in sexualized environments (Marcantonio et al, 2022;McKie et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2021).…”

Section: Context Matters: Relational Community and Societal-level Fac...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adults’ Understandings and Experiences of the Capacity to Consent to Substance-Involved Sexual Activity

Smith

Kolokotroni

Turner-Moore

2023

The Journal of Sex Research

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Most research on capacity to consent to substance-involved sex has focused exclusively on the implications of alcohol with little attention given to other or additional psychoactive drugs. This study aimed to explore people's understanding and experiences of the capacity to consent to alcoholand/or drug-involved sexual activity. UK adults (N = 354) completed an online mixed-methods survey on sexual consent during sober, alcohol-and/or drug-involved sex. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Themes for capacity to consent were: (1) 'There is no normative understanding of substance-involved sexual consent', (2) 'Moving beyond the binary of consciousness versus incapacitation' and (3) 'Substance-involved sexual decisions are viewed as irresponsible'. The findings illustrated that capacity to consent is nuanced and multidimensional, and that people's understandings and experiences of capacity to consent to substance-involved sex are not solely individual, but rather, they are also shaped by their environment. We call for a multidimensional view of capacity to consent, where a standard of 'unimpaired', rather than sober, is used and modeled by academics, legislators, and educators.

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Section: Context Matters: Relational Community and Societal-level Fac...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adults’ Understandings and Experiences of the Capacity to Consent to Substance-Involved Sexual Activity

Smith

Kolokotroni

Turner-Moore

2023

The Journal of Sex Research

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“…230 not particularly wanting sex and being unable to show reluctance due to intoxication, concerns two very different legal situations. 231 Therefore the specific facts of each case must be examined (ideally by an expert witness) in deciding whether consent is deemed to have been given, alongside the mental states of both parties. That includes the influence that the defendant's intoxication had on him holding a reasonable belief regarding the victim's consent.…”

Section: Intoxicated Consentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Yes means Yes”. Theoretical dilemmas and new definition of rape and sexual assault in Slovenian Criminal Law

Šuta¹,

Berglez²,

Šepec³

2022

ppk

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The legislation of crimes against sexual integrity was initially aimed at safeguarding specific interests such as the honour of the father, the family, virginity, and the social security of women. Accordingly, the extent of rape victims was for a long time limited only to women (e.g. under Article 100 of the Criminal Code of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia from 1977, the execution of rape was only possible as immission penis in vaginam). In modern society, legislators seek to protect the self-determination of the individual, sexual and physical integrity, and sexual autonomy. This reversal demonstrates that modern criminal law revolves around the essential question of whether sexual intercourse is engaged in through free choice, that is, autonomously. Domestic legislators have been put under the pressure of media campaigns and controversial case law to modernise criminal law accordingly. In the spirit of the reforms, the Republic of Slovenia in 2021 adopted the amendments of Rape and Sexual Assault in the Criminal Code (KZ-1H) consistent with the affirmative consent model (“yes means yes”).

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“…UK law regarding alcohol and consent only states that a person should not be incapacitated by drink and advises that the capacity to consent may diminish before they are unconscious (e.g., Crown Prosecution Service, 2021). Following this logic, although it may still be morally wrong to have sex with an intoxicated partner, it is not always illegal (Clough, 2019). Thus, simply being “drunk” or “very drunk” does not unambiguously mean that an individual could not legally give consent.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Just One Shot? The Contextual Effects of Matched and Unmatched Intoxication on Perceptions of Consent in Ambiguous Alcohol-fueled Sexual Encounters

Laughlin,

Pettitt,

Lamarche

et al. 2023

J Interpers Violence

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The current research examined how contextual factors—the quantity of alcohol consumed by each partner, and whether this quantity matched—influenced how alcohol-fueled sexual encounters were perceived with regard to consent, coercion, sexual assault, and perceived responsibility of the focal partner for the outcome of the encounter. Across four studies ( Ntotal = 535), participants read vignettes in which one person described a sexual encounter they had following a night out drinking. These scenarios differed within studies as a function of quantified alcohol consumed (1 shot; 15 shots) and whether both people in the vignettes consumed the same amount of alcohol (matched; unmatched). They also differed between studies as a function of whether the couples described were mixed gender or same gender. Across all four studies, scenarios in which both people in the scenario consumed different quantities of alcohol (i.e., 15 vs. 1 shot) were seen as less consensual, more coercive, and more likely to be an assault compared to scenarios where consumption was matched, especially at lower levels of intoxication (i.e., 1 shot each vs. 15 shots each). However, focal partners were also seen as less responsible for the outcome of the interaction when levels of intoxication were unmatched compared to matched. This pattern replicated across scenarios depicting same-gender and mixed-gender couples. These findings suggest that people prioritize information regarding whether sexual partners are “matched” or “unmatched” in terms of their intoxication when evaluating whether ambiguous sexual encounters are consensual and perceived individual responsibility.

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Finding the Balance: Intoxication and Consent

Cited by 5 publications

References 29 publications

Adults’ Understandings and Experiences of the Capacity to Consent to Substance-Involved Sexual Activity

Adults’ Understandings and Experiences of the Capacity to Consent to Substance-Involved Sexual Activity

“Yes means Yes”. Theoretical dilemmas and new definition of rape and sexual assault in Slovenian Criminal Law

Just One Shot? The Contextual Effects of Matched and Unmatched Intoxication on Perceptions of Consent in Ambiguous Alcohol-fueled Sexual Encounters

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