Regulating intimate violence: rough sex, consent and death

In this paper we highlight the inadequacies of the current legal response to killings in the course of alleged rough sex. The issues we identify demonstrate the thinness of the legal conceptions of “consent” “violence” and “intent” that have led to the controversial outcomes in some such cases. If the law struggles to find an effective response to domestic abuse and sexual violence in cases where the victim has died, then this shows the severity of the challenges in dealing with them in non-fatal cases. We will critically consider some of the reform proposals that have been enacted in response to these cases and suggest that on their own they are highly unlikely to be effective. We need a more radical rethinking of the law’s approach to consent, sex and violence; to the use of evidence in these cases; and a shift in society’s understanding of consent to sex and violence