Consent: The Law
There is some reading next, which is essential to understand the law in this area. Once you’ve read the law there are some scenarios to go through to test your understanding.
The Law
- Someone has to agree to have sex by their own choice and have the freedom and capacity to make that choice.
- ‘Capacity’ means the mental ability to make that decision i.e. their age or whether or not they are suffering from a mental illness.
- ‘Consent’ means the actual agreement from one person to have sex with another person.
Age
- Everyone taking part in the sexual activity has to be over 16 in order to be able to make the decision to have sex. This is called the ‘Age of Consent’.
- It is illegal for someone who is over 18 to have sex with someone under the age of 18, if the older person is in a position of trust i.e. a teacher or social worker.
- If someone has sex with someone who did not consent, either because they didn’t want to or because they legally couldn’t, then they could be guilty of either Sexual Assault or Rape.
Sexual Assault or Rape?
- Rape is the ‘intentional penetration of another with a penis, without the other person’s consent or reasonable belief in their consent’. This means the person penetrating likely did not think the other person was ok with what was happening.
- ‘Reasonable belief’ includes taking reasonable steps to check if the other person is consenting to have sex.
- Sexual assault is the ‘intentional sexual penetration of another with a body part or object other than a penis’ without their consent.
- Both crimes come with life sentences if found guilty
Do both parties consent in these situation?
