Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 2020
Language
en-US
Abstract
In November 2018, Columbia University published a study showing that students who received formal sex education before entering college that included training in refusing unwanted sex were half as likely to be assaulted as those who had not. That study claims to be the first to research sex education’s effect on sexual violence instead of its impact on pregnancy or HIV prevention. A different study, conducted by Planned Parenthood in 2015, shows confusion around the definition of sexual consent itself: it found that 19% of people strongly agreed that not saying “no” indicated consent for more sexual activity, whereas 20% of people strongly disagreed with that statement, and that while 88% of people polled wanted to incorporate instruction on “how to ask for consent” in high school programming, only 21% of students reported learning that information while in high school themselves. The study similarly showed that 97% of people want how to say “no” to sex to be taught in high school, but only 33% of students report learning it.
Recommended Citation
Seth Reiner,
Me Too? Incentivising States to Adopt Consent-Based Sex Education
,
12
Northeastern University Law Review
162
(2020).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/4074
