'Rape-Adjacent': Imagining Legal Responses to Nonconsensual Condom Removal

28 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2017 Last revised: 5 May 2017

Date Written: 2017

Abstract

Nonconsensual condom removal during sexual intercourse exposes victims to physical risks of pregnancy and disease and, interviews make clear, is experienced by many as a grave violation of dignity and autonomy. Such condom removal, popularly known as “stealthing,” can be understood to transform consensual sex into nonconsensual sex by one of two theories, one of which poses a risk of over-criminalization by demanding complete transparency about reproductive capacity and sexually transmitted infections. Adopting the alternative, preferable theory of non-consent, this Article considers possible criminal, tort, contract, and civil rights remedies currently available to victims. Ultimately, a new tort for “stealthing” is necessary both to provide victims with a more viable cause of action and to reflect better the harms wrought by nonconsensual condom removal.

Keywords: Feminism, Gender Violence, Sexual Violence, Feminist Law, Gender, Sex Equality

JEL Classification: K00

Suggested Citation

Brodsky, Alexandra, 'Rape-Adjacent': Imagining Legal Responses to Nonconsensual Condom Removal (2017). Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2954726

Alexandra Brodsky (Contact Author)

Independent ( email )

United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
23,597
Abstract Views
193,721
Rank
216
PlumX Metrics