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The Legal Definition of Consensual Sex is Likely to Change in California: What It Means

By Stephanie M. Hunziker, PhD, criminal justice faculty at American Military University

Last week, the California State Senate passed SB-967, a bill that would affect all state-funded college campuses to redefine the meaning of consensual sex. For decades now, state lawmakers around the country have relied heavily on the “no means no” campaign against sexual assault and rape. This California bill would introduce a sweeping change for college campuses, students, and their college communities. Given the unanimous vote, Governor Jerry Brown will likely sign the bill into law before the end of September.

Affirmative Consent: What Does the Bill Mean?
If the bill is signed into law, colleges and universities in California will have to adopt a new affirmative consent standard across their communities. The law would require “affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity.” There is some discretion here for universities and colleges to develop their own wordage for their policies, however, policies will need to reflect the requirement regarding affirmative consent.

Consent Must be Ongoing
The bill includes language that consent must also be “ongoing” and that lack of protest and lack of resistance is not indicative of consent. This is really what sets the new idea of consent apart from the “no means no” definition.

Now parties engaging in sexual activity will have to seek some level of consent in the form of a “yes” in order to legally engage in sex and sexual activity. That consent will also need to be ongoing, meaning that those engaging in sex will need to continue to gain affirmative consent as they progress through each step of sexual activity. You might be thinking to yourself: “What’s next? A signed written contract confirming consent?”

Why the Change?
According to the Senate, the primary reason for the change has to do with the seeming inability of colleges and universities to reduce the number of sexual assaults on campus. Some research studies put the prevalence of sexual assault among college students at 1 in 5 women (Krebs et.al., 2007).

The White House appointed a task force in January of this year that was assigned to protect students from sexual assault (Not Alone, White House Task Force, 2014). During their review of research, the task force noted that the vast majority of these sexual assaults occur early in a student’s college career and that they often occur between a victim and offender who knew each other previously. Most troubling is the finding that many women are incapacitated at the time of the assault; meaning they are drugged, intoxicated, or incapacitated in some other way (e.g., passed out) (Not Alone, White House Task Force, 2014).

What to Watch For
If the Governor of California signs the bill into law we should be looking for further discussion about how affirmative consent can be communicated, legally, between the parties engaged in sexual activity. Further discussion is expected regarding how we should remedy the call for consent to be “ongoing.” Critics of the bill will likely address its vague language that does not address whether consent has to be purely verbal or if another form of communication might suffice. In addition, the real issue here is about the prevalence of sexual assault and rape on campus.

Will such a law make a difference in the occurrence of these assaults?

Stephanie HunzikerAbout the Author: Dr. Stephanie M. Hunziker has been working in the criminal justice field for the past 15 years and has been teaching courses in criminal justice and law for more than a decade. She teaches courses in policing, courts, the administration of justice, juvenile justice, the future of criminal justice, research methods, and criminal justice policy.

References:

Krebs, C.P., Lindquist, C.H., Warner, T.D., Fisher, B.S., & Martin, S.L. (2007). The Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.

Not Alone, White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault (April 2014). Office of Vice President and the US Council on Women and Girls.

Leischen Kranick is a Managing Editor at AMU Edge. She has 15 years of experience writing articles and producing podcasts on topics relevant to law enforcement, fire services, emergency management, private security, and national security.

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