What’s Current: Research finds ‘rough sex’ defence forced over 60 victims to deny consenting to sexual violence

  • Data gathered by We Can’t Consent To This reveals the “rough sex” defence forced 67 victims to appear in court over the last decade to deny that they consented to strangulation, assault, or violence during sexual encounters.
  • An Ontario court rules people accused of sexual assault can argue they were so intoxicated they didn’t know what they were doing, resulting in backlash from women’s rights activists.
  • The New Zealand government will provide free sanitary products in high schools across the country in a new initiative to eliminate period poverty.
  • Four of the Spanish men convicted of the 2019 “wolf pack” rape are handed longer prison sentences for a separate sexual abuse case that occurred months earlier.
Meghan McCarty

Meghan McCarty is an undergraduate student and aspiring journalist living in the United States.