
Young men can barely tell when they receive sexual consent
STATES CHRONICLE – A recent study discovered a toxic sexual behavior which is quite widespread among men, and which they unconsciously adopt. It turns out that it’s hard for them to tell the difference between sexual interest and consent. Also, once they receive the approval once, they think they will have it any time they try to have sexual relations with the woman in question.
Sexual misconduct is the most widespread criminal behavior among students
Consent and sexual harassment is one of the most popular subjects debated right now, as many people launched a series of accusations after being sexually abused. Therefore, a team of researchers decided to investigate the behavior of male college students, since the most widespread of misconduct among them remains the sexual one.
The aim of the researchers was to identify those factors which determined young men to perform sexual misconduct. They selected 145 male students studying at a big university in the southeast of the US, which hasn’t been named. All the participants were heterosexual, and had to explain how they would act in a series of scenarios involving sexual behavior.
Male students often mistake sexual interest for consent
This is how they discovered the young men could barely tell sexual interest apart from consent. Also, their idea of consent was strongly related to how the woman expressed her intentions. This means that, for them, passive refusal didn’t always count as lack of consent.
Moreover, they tended to pay less attention to such matters if they already had a sexual history with someone. In these cases, even an explicit refusal was hard to understand. This means they would assume a woman would accept sexual relations anytime after they had already happened once.
Researchers also explored what might make students be less careful with consent. These factors included a higher consumption of alcohol, as well as less restrictive parents. The study has been published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
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