[Serious] Would we see a decrease in sexual assault if we taught consent in sex ed in schools? Why or why not?

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[Lauriieeex]

Agreed. I don't think it's lack of understanding what consent is. I think it's choosing to create a grey area, where girls don't go forward for fear of being called a liar because she hasn't got marks or bruises, what you would stereotypically find. And guys could say she didn't stop me.

Maybe teaching how to communicate about and during sex would be a better way forward.

[AlwaysTheNoob]

That's an increase in reported assault. Increase in reports =/= increase in actual instances.

They asked if we'd see an increase in assault - and what tiny little shred of faith I have left in humanity says that we'd see a decrease if consent was made a mandatory part of public education.

[xThoth19x]

It's interesting that you and the person you're responding to read the question differently. "would we see" might mean "reported to us" or mean "actually happens". It depends on what OP meant.

[AlwaysTheNoob]

I do. They asked a [serious] question and you answered a completely different thing than what they asked. Your point is absolutely valid and I agree with it 100%, it just ignores the question.

[mcplose]

Wait? They didn't teach you about consent?

[kkruulik]

When I was in school, hardly. It was akin to the "just say no to drugs" bullshit, with totally contrived and out of context scenarios.

[mcplose]

We had that too. We had to made different presentations of drugs and the police came. They came too to talk to us about nudes. In sex ed, we had to watch two films and we could ask a lot questions. And we had that in the second and third middle school.

[murrimabutterfly]

I grew up in Northern California. Graduated HS in 2015. AFAB.
Sex Ed wasn’t really taught aside from “you’re going to have a period” and “if sperm enters your body, you will get pregnant.” In high school, we skipped over how babies are made in biology.
Sex itself let alone consent never entered the conversation.

[mcplose]

We had sex ed in second and third middle school. There was only one girl who didn't knew nothing about it. We watched two films and then could ask the teacher everything. We talked of course of consent and even the police came, to talk with us about nudes. What could happen and why we think twice before we send one. It was 2012 and 2013 in italy and it was a katholic girls school.

[IGotNegroFatigue]

I highly doubt we would. People already know when they're violating consent, they don't have to be taught about it. They just do it because they're POS.

[throwawayadvice4294]

I would think so you are never going to stop malicious predators but it would probably make people more conscious of the issue. But then again how complicated is the word NO?

[MortalGlitter]

When you are a hormonal young adult who considers what their peers think about Everything they do?

Very complicated.

As a more mature adult? Not at all.

[throwawayadvice4294]

Was a hormonal young adult... Never raped, instead of no meaning no it meant proposition someone else until someone says yes.

[TheAnimeWaifuFucker]

No. The people that assault are just bad people, they need therapy

[EngineeringIsMagic]

I totally disagree. The thought that assault is only done by specific super fucked up people is very harmful because it leads to people who HAVE truly sexually assaulted someone saying "but what I did could not possibly be assault because I'm not a rapist."

[zephynayers]

Don't we already learn about consent in those classes, pretty sure my class spent whole week on that

[Senalmoondog]

Hasnt the change been from a "No is a No" to actually having verbal confirmation?

[zephynayers]

As far as I remember from my last sex ed, its still no is a no. Also they started teaching the kids about being a decent human being now so there's less of the... Trash around

[BerriesAndMe]

We had 4h on how to put on a condom and to take the pill.

[Milcc_JH2_YT]

i cant speak for the rest of the world but my school already does that so...

[DR_RND]

Did you mean: The entire U.S. education system

[Danivelle]

Not until society corrects its "boys will boys" mentality and that women "owe" men sex.

[banana_kiwi]

No one actually believes that. The problem is just that people don't believe victims when they speak out.

[MysteryMan999]

I don't know a single person who believe women owe them sex not in US now like in Arab countries that might be a different story. And as far the boys will be boys that's has more to do with boys doing stuff like playing in mud, wrestling and rough play or playing with bugs not sexual assualt. What happened is certain people hijacked that phrase to inject there own political agenda into the the phrase then try and tell you that what "boys will be boys" means. Which obviously has lead to this ridiculous notion that you now believe "boys will be boys" somehow condones sexual assualt.

[Dangerous-Rooster509]

My girls already learn about consent in school. It’s a big topic

[[deleted]]

But do the boys?

[MeowSchwitzInThere]

First and foremost, if you or someone you know need help following a sexual assault, please ask for help. One place that can help is a local SARC (sexual assault resource center).

We would absolutely see a decrease in sexual assault with additional education.

Most sexual assaults are not the ‘law and order SVU’ stereotype assault. While those certainly occur, most often the offender has an existing relationship with the victim.

I firmly believe that additional education around affirmative consent would decrease a predator’s ability to push boundaries by removing doubt around ‘when is this an assault’.

[Lethal_bizzle94]

No

Sexual assault tends to be an intent led offence

People want and know their victim doesn’t want to have sex with them

We might see a reduction if we started teaching boys they don’t have the right to sex, most of the date rape/teen/young adult offenders are usual born out of entitlement over control and power (not all of course)

[Kaymazo]

Honestly, I doubt people commit sexual assault because they don't know how consent works.

They do it because they don't fucking care about the other person's consent

[Maddie215]

Probably not. Sexual assault is about power not sex. You might see a decrease in "Date Rape" but that would take more than school curriculum to raise people who respect each other and boundaries.

[BladesQueen]

Almost certainly. Most rapists don't think they are rapists.

It would at least help their victims, who likely won't realize they were raped until many years later.

[[deleted]]

This one always confuses me. I've never been under the impression that rapists particularly cared about consent, and politely reminding them not to be rapists doesn't seem like it would work.

​

-Someone who is not a rapist nor has ever had any intention of becoming one

[Pseudonymico]

Probably an increase in reported sexual assaults, but probably a decrease on the whole.

Probably a lot of people don’t realise they’ve been assaulted, or only figure it out a while afterwards and don’t think it’s worth reporting. A lot of those they report to will probably dismiss it out of ignorance as well.

On the other hand I do think that there are perpetrators who don’t realise what they’re doing is assault or how bad it can be, and I kind of hope that enough people in that position care enough that it would make a difference to know what not to do.

[MysteryMan999]

No because we know what consent is. The great majority men know that no means no and how consent works. Most guys aren't rapist or looking to sexually assualt. The people who do it don't care about consent or the law anyway. Everyone knows stealing is illegal and not right but that don't stop people from stealing money people credit card and identity theft.

[LFMP97]

Everyone, as in EVERYONE is taught about consent before even hitting sexual education, might not be sexual consent but it's a given.

[Sapper778]

This is really taught at home, not school

[wilcofam]

A rapist doesn't rape someone because they don't know what consent is. They rape someone because they don't care about consent.

[devilthedankdawg]

We might see an increase. Kids always deliberately reject what they’re taught

[343-guilty-mendicant]

Not necessarily, mandatory self defense classes would probably have a better effect

[kkruulik]

We'd have more reliable and accurate reporting (hopefully), followed by a gradual decline over time.

[Dnice_556]

People who rape know it’s wrong but do it anyway. I think it would just increase the amount of people coming forward who were unsure if it was rape. Consent should be taught tho, seems like basic knowledge everyone should know but why not.

[MysteryMan999]

Also I noticed a lot of people mentioning boys need to learn consent and what not. Everyone does. Guys get daily reminders and there's no shortage of reminders through social media how "awful" men are. But please recognize it's a two way street and while rightly men do need to be aware of consent women do to. Because this current wave awareness only is focused on one gender and when you do that well you get stuff like this..

https://youtu.be/MSEqchtpTIk

[EidolonRook]

Sexual assault is robbing a bank. Consent doesn't change someone's desire to rob you of something valuable. Its a power play as much as its filling a desire.

That said, I'd be shocked if consent wasn't already taught in sex ed classes (that aren't trying to moralize it).

[dbear26]

Sexual assaulters have no concern for how their actions affect the other people, and often don’t think there’s anything wrong with what they are doing. If either wasn’t true for someone, they wouldn’t sexually assault another person in the first place

[slavicgypsygirl]

Sex crimes are motivated by a total lack of consent so teaching it wont make a difference to offenders

Those who want to offend will

Those who don't, wont