Assumptions of Consent Students Perceptions

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Assumptions of Consent- Students Perceptions

• Emily Bolton
• Victoria Banyard
• University of New Hampshire

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Introduction

• How do students perceive issues surrounding
  unwanted sexual experiences and consent?
• Consent, in this context, refers to permission to
  engage in physical sexual activity

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Introduction

• Sexual violence is a significant problem for
  college communities
• 29 students sexually victimized in dating since
  entering college
• Many terms and concepts related to this issue
  lack universal definition
• Ambiguity surrounding concepts of consent and
  unwanted sexual experiences

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Introduction

• Variation can cause significant confusion between
  partners
• Influences both the victim and the perpetrators
  perception of whether or not a sexual act should
  be considered assault
• Other factors- alcohol use and victim and
  perpetrator relationship

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Methods- Participants

• 19 Introductory Psychology students
• 47 freshmen
• 32 sophomores
• 16 juniors
• 5 seniors
• 10 females, 9 males
• 10 COLA students, 9 from other colleges

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Methods- Procedure

• Qualitative interviews
• Place the students voices at the center of the
  research
• Understand how students perceive concepts such as
  consent and unwanted sexual experiences

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Methods- Procedure

• Qualitative interviews
• 20-30 minutes each, conducted individually
• All interviews conducted by one of two female
  interviewers
• Participants asked for general opinion of college
  culture, not specific personal experiences

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Methods- Procedure

• Interview questions
• Sexual and intimate relationships among college
  students
• The process of consent within sexual experiences
• How is consent obtained? Is it obtained?
• Alcohols effect
• Differences in consent within short term vs. long
  term relationships
• Unwanted sexual experiences
• Ways of expressing no that are not taken
  seriously

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Methods- Analysis

• Goal- Sort through the masses of information
  acquired and organize it to gain an understanding
  of themes that address the problem
• Understand personal realities of students
• Specific analysis evolves as process goes on
• Analysis focused on issues of consent

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Methods- Analysis

• Transcribe all interviews
• Read through for general impressions, become
  familiar with entire data set
• Identify categories and codes using students
  language
• Go back and code all interviews
• Look for meaning and relationships, interpret the
  data
• Reliability- have someone else code interviews
  (25) as well
• cancels out biases

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Working definitions- consent

• Ideal- what should be done
• Actual- what students actually do
• Obtaining- person is seeking consent from their
  partner, checking to be sure that it is alright
  with them
• Usually the initiator of the activity
• Conveying- person is showing or telling their
  partner that what is happening is either alright
  or not alright with them

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Working definitions- consent

• Verbal
• someone verbally asks their partner if it is okay
• individual says yes or no to a sexual
  initiation
• having a discussion about it
• Physical
• reading body language
• initiating or reciprocating sexual activity
• pushing

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Results- Ideal

• Students recognize that, ideally, consent should
  be obtained from their partner
• 50 students focused on obtaining consent
• Emphasis is on verbal consent
• 76.6 overall comments about verbal consent

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Results- Actual

• 66.7- Consent is not actually obtained
• In reality, the focus is on conveying consent
  rather than obtaining it
• 83.3 students focused on conveying consent
• 91.7 said consent is not actually obtained AND
  focused on conveying
• Emphasis is on physical consent
• 70.8 overall comments about physical consent

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Results- Forms not taken seriously

• Most of the forms of consent not taken seriously
  are verbal
• Only 16.7 were non-verbal
• Contradiction- ideal form is verbal, BUT the
  forms of non-consent not taken seriously are
  primarily verbal
• Verbal can be both serious and non-serious
  (61.1)
• Serious- must be very firm and stern
• Non-serious- teasing, saying it casually or nicely

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Results- Alcohols impact

• UNH Student Code of Conduct
• Sexual misconduct includes sexual activity when
  a person's ability to give expressed permission
  is compromised due to mental/physical disability
  and/or mental/physical incapacitation due to
  substance ingestion.
• System acknowledges alcohols impact
• No working definition of incapacitation

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Results- Alcohols impact

• 88.9 students agree that alcohol does impact the
  validity of consent
• Exceptions-
• If both partners are drunk
• If they are within a long term relationship

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Results- Alcohols impact

• 92.1- In some drinking situations, consent can
  still be considered valid there is a line to be
  drawn
• if people have a few drinks, you can still give
  consent.sometimes people can catch a good buzz
  and still function normally or be coherent enough
  to say yeah, I want to do this.

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Results- Alcohols impact

• Where is the line?
• 49.2- general physical signs (stumbling, slurred
  speech)
• 19- cognitive signs (acting out of the ordinary,
  not thinking straight)
• 15.8- extreme physical signs (blacked out,
  puking)
• 88.9 also provided a lower physical standard
• 7.9- completely ambiguous answer

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Results

• Within long term relationships, consent is
  implied rather than directly obtained
• 76.5- implied
• 11.8- both
• 11.8- direct

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Discussion

• Strong contradictions between the ideal and
  actual
• Obtain vs. convey
• Verbal vs. physical

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Discussion

• Ideally, the default is that consent is not
  present and must be obtained
• In reality, there is a shift in responsibility
• Consent is assumed
• Burden of consent is put on the person wanting to
  refuse the activity rather than the initiator of
  the activity

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Future implications

• Alcohols impact
• Create a better working definition for
  incapacitation
• Draw a more distinct line for what is too drunk
  for consent to be considered valid
• Apply to codes of conduct

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Future implications

• Shift in prevention methods
• Improved education on how to better convey no,
  show that there is non-consent and be taken
  seriously
• How to better communicate and understand whether
  or not partner is providing consent

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Legal implications

• Changing legal approach could help society to
  change general approach
• Presently, law contradicts the ideal
• Assumes that consent is present until there is
  significant evidence to the contrary
• Burden is on the non-aggressor to resist

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Thank you!

• Vicki Banyard
• UROP
• UNH Psychology Dept.
• Carolyn Mebert
• Julie Arnold
• Ashley Ward
• Alyssa Timmerman
• My family