Perspectives of Rape-Prevention Educators on the Role of Consent in Sexual Violence Prevention

Sexual consent education is increasingly used as an educational tool for sexual violence prevention. Yet very little research exists on the effectiveness of consent education to reduce rates of sexual violence. Prior to understanding the effectiveness of any prevention programme, it is essential to understand the mechanisms through which the approach will prevent incidents of sexual violence. For instance, some programmes address perpetrating behaviour while others focus on increasing bystander behaviour. The mechanisms behind consent education may appear on the surface to be very clear. If everyone knows how to ask for and communicate consent, and everyone then does so, there would be no sexual violence. However, if this were the case, then consent education would only prevent sexual violence that was caused by people who were naïve to the communication of consent. To develop a better understanding of the mechanisms through which consent education could work, I interviewed educators involved in designing and delivering consent programming. Their perceptions of the potential for consent education to create change are complex. Educators simultaneously see transformative potential in consent education while maintaining scepticism about the possibility of consent education to change perpetrating behaviour.