Time to end victim blaming

More specifically, what does and does not constitute consensual sex.

Gavin St Pier’s powerful speech in the States last week brought this issue to the forefront and persuaded a majority of deputies to support his amendment to the sexual offences legislation. His brave admission of his own experience of sexual assault, told in the hope it would help break the taboo and encourage others to come forward, elevated the subject from political to personal.

But what does the amendment actually mean?

In essence, it’s an end to victim blaming. An end to silence and passivity being taken as consent. An end to people incapacitated through drink or drugs, whether taken voluntarily or not, being considered capable of giving consent. An end to potential victims being expected to modify their behaviour and the way they dress to keep themselves safe.

Instead, people will need to take more care to ensure that the object of their desires is not only capable of giving consent but is actively doing so.

It’s not just a legislative change, it’s a cultural change. And it’s long overdue.

There are, as ever, some areas of concern that have been raised.

For example, what exactly constitutes incapacity? Where on the scale of drunkenness does it kick in? After all, if all sexual encounters that take place after a few drinks are to be classified as crimes, then there would be few among us who could claim innocence. There’s a world of difference between ‘slightly merry’ and ‘falling down drunk’ and it is surely the latter that we are concerned with here.

The fact is it is already a tough task to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a sexual assault has taken place and this will form just one of many factors that will make up the complete picture when the prosecution attempts to prove its case.

Another concern raised is that it could lead to an increase in false accusations.

But since only 1.7% of rapes in the UK are prosecuted, and of those only 58% result in conviction, the chances of a false accusation actually making it to trial are slim, and the chances of a wrongful conviction are even slimmer.

The amendment might not be perfect. It won’t stop sexual offences from taking place. But if it makes just one perpetrator change their behaviour, or encourages one victim to speak out, then it will have done its job.