A social model of 'abused consent'

These young people are challenging the assumption that they are consenting to CSE. In this chapter I argue that too often young people’s ‘consent’ to CSE is taken for granted or assumed, and by default, the young person feels blamed for the abuse they experience. I argue that this is intricately linked to our current understanding of young people’s ‘consent’ to sexual activity which is based on a medical model that assesses their intellectual capacity to understand and use contraceptives. This is inadequate as a framework for understanding the pressures on those who might be sexually exploited. A ‘social model’ of consent would enable consent to be contextualised, shedding light on how ‘consent’ may be distorted through abusive and exploitative relationships and/or contexts. This would eventually challenge what I call ‘condoned consent’: the process by which some practitioners may fail to identify and challenge sexual exploitation. Without a social model helping us to contextualise ‘consent’, too many young people are left feeling that they are responsible for the abuse they experience.