Study: College students' realities don't align with schools' affirmative-consent standards for sex
Non-verbal cues figure in frequently with sexual consent among college students, and that may not comport with schools’ affirmative-consent rules, say two academics who spent one year interviewing a sample of northern California freshmen.
“The idea of affirmative consent has resulted in progressive advancement of college policies. But just because you make it clearer what we expect in terms of consent from a legal or policy standpoint, that doesn’t change the fact that people are limited in their ability to meet those expectations,” Jason Laker told Inside Higher Ed. A counselor education professor at San Jose State University, he worked on the study with Erica Boas, an adjunct lecturer at Santa Clara University.
More than 800 universities have adopted an affirmative-consent standard, according to a 2014 article. Also, California in 2015 passed a law requiring universities to adopt a standard of affirmative consent in their discipline policies. The policy changes followed more attention to campus sexual-misconduct issues, and a 2011 “Dear colleague” letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. It stated that sexual violence is among the offenses banned by Title IX, and also directed schools to use a preponderance-of-evidence standard, rather than a burden-of-proof standard, in sexual-misconduct hearings.
According to Laker and Boas’ study, only one out of 15 students interviewed reported asking someone if they wanted to have sex. Many reported that they were intoxicated during sex, and indicated that drinking before having sex made them more comfortable. Most affirmative-consent rules state that people who are intoxicated are incapable of giving consent.
Affirmative-consent policies treat students like they “just hatched out of an egg,” says Laker, who is also part of the affiliated research facility with San Francisco State’s Center for Research and Education on Gender and Sexuality. Many students grow up with the notion that sex isn’t something people talk about, he adds, and a policy that assumes people will ask for sex could be biased toward extroverts.
“The answer to this problem, we believe very strongly, is not going to be found in laws and policies, but that’s where 95 percent of the efforts are,” he told Insider Higher Ed. “Very often, this is about lawyers making sure universities are not going to get sued. What is that going to do to prevent these problems? We need to give students the tools to help them communicate in a way that fits their own temperament.”
According to the study’s website, there are plans to to follow up work with participants, and expand the group to include the LGBT community.
