Sir, – Consent education is not about labelling people as offenders or victims but preventing sexual assault and ensuring respect for all parties. The simple fact is that such education – while it should have been provided much earlier in life – is severely lacking in Ireland. The idea that being “adult” about consent is sufficient is both dangerous and blatantly inadequate.
Furthermore, there are suggestions that such education would lead to an increase in false claims of sexual assault and rape. This demonstrates a very poor opinion of women in general. Additionally, it may be the case that previous instances of sexual assault went unreported precisely due to a lack of clear understanding around issues of consent.
This all serves to drive home the absolute importance of consent education. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN CLASBY,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – By introducing mandatory sexual consent classes for their male students, Trinity College Dublin is making a genuine effort to address this issue. In doing so, Trinity is not saying that most men are likely to rape. It is saying that all men need to better understand the issues.
There are many factors in society that have led to the situation where one in four female respondents in a survey say that they have had a non-consensual sexual experience during their time in university. For example, contraception has created a greater expectation of sex on demand and young people are drinking more.
When we drink, our judgments are impaired. A man who has been drinking might be with a woman and want sex and be unable to see clearly that she does not want it. A woman who has been drinking might be less able to defend herself and to express clearly that no means no. These are difficult situations and both men and women need to learn how to avoid them and how to deal with them if they arise.
The law in Northern Ireland says that consent is where a person “agrees by choice and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice”. There is not consent where a person has been subjected to threats of violence, is asleep, is intoxicated through alcohol or drugs, is exploited or coerced in any way.
The law in the Republic is similar but unfortunately not as explicitly set out. Nonetheless, there have been prosecutions here where someone has had sex with someone who has been intoxicated or asleep. The sentences given are often non-custodial and seem light relative to the impact on the victim. But the perpetrator is left with a criminal record, and they often have to live with the consequences of this for the rest of their lives.
I believe that many young men who commit the crime, and it is a crime, of having non-consensual sex would not see themselves as rapists. Young women who find themselves having non-consensual sex would never have thought that it would happen to them. And, in all likelihood, neither the men nor the women have considered the possible consequences. Both men and women need to be informed about these issues.
These classes need to be mandatory because the people who most need to hear about these issues will otherwise not turn up. But I would say to Trinity and to other universities that these classes need to be mandatory not just for men but for women also. The statistics show that young men and women have not been able to “negotiate and define” these boundaries for themselves and we, as adults, teachers and parents, must seek to empower them in this regard. – Yours, etc,
VANESSA PEARSE,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.