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Capacity of adults with intellectual disabilities to consent to sexual relationships

Capacity of adults with intellectual disabilities to consent to sexual relationships
Capacity of adults with intellectual disabilities to consent to sexual relationships
Background:
For people with intellectual disabilities there is a difficult balance to be struck between empowering people to claim their sexual rights and protecting them from abuse. Hypothetically, services should be guided by whether a particular person with intellectual disabilities has the capacity to consent to sexual relationships. However, there has been little agreement on how to define such capacity. This study examines the issue of capacity to consent to sexual relationships using a functional approach.

Method:
Adults with intellectual disabilities (n = 60) and young people presumed in law able to consent (n = 60) were assessed for their sexual knowledge and vulnerability to abuse.

Results:
Adults with intellectual disabilities were significantly less knowledgeable about almost all aspects of sex and appeared significantly more vulnerable to abuse, having difficulty at times distinguishing abusive from consenting relationships. Nevertheless, some adults with intellectual disabilities scored highly on all measures, especially if they had relatively high IQs and had had sex education.

Conclusions:
The reasons for the poorer knowledge and increased vulnerability of people with intellectual disabilities are discussed and it is recommended that they should have on-going access to sex education. Implications of the findings for definitions of capacity to consent to sexual relationships are considered.
intellectual disabilities, consent, sexual relationships, understanding
0033-2917
1347-1357
Murphy, G.H.
0e512a2a-e54a-432f-95bf-ec43159cf5ad
O'Callaghan, A.
058f3917-b556-4eef-a393-4c025a3c4ccb
Murphy, G.H.
0e512a2a-e54a-432f-95bf-ec43159cf5ad
O'Callaghan, A.
058f3917-b556-4eef-a393-4c025a3c4ccb

Murphy, G.H. and O'Callaghan, A. (2004) Capacity of adults with intellectual disabilities to consent to sexual relationships. Psychological Medicine, 34 (7), 1347-1357. (doi:10.1017/S0033291704001941). (PMID:15697061)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background:
For people with intellectual disabilities there is a difficult balance to be struck between empowering people to claim their sexual rights and protecting them from abuse. Hypothetically, services should be guided by whether a particular person with intellectual disabilities has the capacity to consent to sexual relationships. However, there has been little agreement on how to define such capacity. This study examines the issue of capacity to consent to sexual relationships using a functional approach.

Method:
Adults with intellectual disabilities (n = 60) and young people presumed in law able to consent (n = 60) were assessed for their sexual knowledge and vulnerability to abuse.

Results:
Adults with intellectual disabilities were significantly less knowledgeable about almost all aspects of sex and appeared significantly more vulnerable to abuse, having difficulty at times distinguishing abusive from consenting relationships. Nevertheless, some adults with intellectual disabilities scored highly on all measures, especially if they had relatively high IQs and had had sex education.

Conclusions:
The reasons for the poorer knowledge and increased vulnerability of people with intellectual disabilities are discussed and it is recommended that they should have on-going access to sex education. Implications of the findings for definitions of capacity to consent to sexual relationships are considered.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 21 October 2004
Published date: October 2004
Keywords: intellectual disabilities, consent, sexual relationships, understanding

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 24184
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/24184
ISSN: 0033-2917
PURE UUID: 5da525f9-984a-4abd-8df5-6c6e9a9aa71a

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 28 Mar 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 06:53

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Contributors

Author: G.H. Murphy
Author: A. O'Callaghan

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