Survivor Advocacy Services

Terminology/Definitions

The responsibility of each person involved in the sexual activity to ensure that each participant has the affirmative consent of the other(s) to engage in sexual activity. Affirmative consent must be voluntary, and freely given without coercion, force, threats, nor intimidation.

Given by a person who is incapacitated. A person is incapacitated if they lack the physical and/or mental ability to make informed, rational decisions. Affirmative consent can be withdrawn of revoked at anytime. Consent to one form of sexual activity (or one sexual act) does not consent to other forms of sexual activity.

Affirmative consent is not a lack of protest or resistance.

Engaging in ANY sexual activity without first obtaining affirmative consent to the specific activity.

Examples: Kissing, fondling, intercourse, penetration of any body part, oral sex, and any unwelcomed physical sexual acts.

Sexual misconduct may include physical force, violence, threats, intimidation, causing the other person's intoxication or incapacitation through the use of drugs or alcohol, or taking advantage of the other person’s incapacitation (including if the incapacitation is voluntary).

Sexual activity with a minor under 18 is never consensual.

Non-consensual sexual intercourse that may involve the use of threats, violence, intimidation, or immediate and unlawful bodily injury.

Any sexual penetration, however slight, is sufficient to constitute rape.

A repeated course of conduct directed at a specific person (when based on gender or sex) that places the person's safety or the safety of others at risk, also causing the victim to suffer substantial emotional distress.

The disrobing or exposure of intimate body parts to another without consent. Intimate parts may include genitalia, groin, breast, or buttocks, or clothing covering them, or any other body part that is touched in a sexual manner.

This can also be in the form of unwanted images of a sexual nature in a work environment, or in a classroom where the images are unrelated to the coursework.

A form of sexual violence and abuse committed by a person who is or has been in a social, dating, cohabitating, or intimate relationship with the victim, regardless of the length of the relationship or gender.

Relationship violence relies on power, control, and intimidation. Physical violence frequently is accompanied by other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, financial or sexual.