In recent years, there has been a rise of consent laws in Europe – that is, sexual harassment laws based on consent rather than forms of violence. The laws can be viewed as a type of morality policies, which aspire to change key values regarding sexual relations and rape, especially among adolescents. However, research on laws' abilities to affect opinions is limited and foremost conducted in an American context. At the same time, consent is a term that has been taken for granted, by both the research community and the general public. In what way do those that are targeted by such consent laws reason about consent and rape? Through in-depth interviews with a selection of Swedish adolescents, this paper investigates the ways consent and rape are understood by those targeted by the new Swedish consent law introduced in 2018. This is done against a feminist legal theorybackdrop. Do the young adults share the views that the law intended for them, and can it be an indicator of the normative potential of morality laws? The findings show that Swedish teenagers share crucial views with the law regarding the fact that consent is the sole decisive factor concerning rape. Violence and the intentions of the perpetrator are insignificant. Interestingly, the young adults show deviating views regarding rape and consent among people in relationships, as well as sex as a result of nagging. Taken together, the results deepen our understanding of how adolescents view rape and the complexity of the concept of consent.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-464071 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Bentzer, Frida |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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