A Missing Link? Connections Between Non-Consensual Sex and Teenage Pregnancy

1. A Missing Link? Connections Between Non-Consensual Sex and Teenage Pregnancy Dr MaddyCoy Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit London Metropolitan University 4th North East Conference on Sexual Violence 22nd November 2010

2. Policy Context • Teenage pregnancy policy priority issue - national and local • Twin track strategy (1999) • Halve teenage conception rates by 2010 • Reduce social exclusion experienced by teenage parents • Non-consensual sex acknowledged in strategy, disappears in annual reports and evaluations • New strategy (DCSF, 2010) and NHS task force review recognise links • Substantial evidence base developed about risk factors and conducive contexts • Extensive international studies link sexual abuse, coercion and intimate partner violence to teenage conception • No British research addressing connections

3. Sexual violence & pregnancy • Global epidemiological data and the British Crime Survey – 4% per cent of rapes result in conception • Historic sexual abuse • Material, psychological and emotional legacies • Active and positive endeavours to conceive • Boys with history of abuse more likely to become teenage fathers • Sexual violence in intimate relationships • Coercive control reduces women’s autonomy over contraceptive use • Condom negotiation and gendered power dynamics

4. Methods • Online survey with Teenage Pregnancy Co ordinators (TPCs) in London (n=23) • knowledge of the links between abusive sexual behaviour and teenage pregnancy • any screening procedures • any initiatives to address the connections • Online survey with Rape Crisis Centres (n=17) • knowledge base on teenage pregnancy and non-consensual sex • local initiatives • and available data • Surveys with young people - play in youth settings and social networking site (n=172) • including attitudes to sexual norms • context in which non-consensual sex may occur

5. Key findings • Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinators • Lack data on possible links between non-consensual sex and teenage conception • Little or no training on sexual violence and abuse • Danger of vicious circle • Rape Crisis Centres • Training on continuum of sexual violence (Kelly, 1988) essential • Inadequate knowledge and resources on sexual violence • Focussed on impact of sexualisation of culture • Both raise decision-making issues if conception result of non-consensual sex

6. Landscapes of consent • Masculinity based on sexual conquest • Almost three quarters (70.1%) of girls and over half of boys (57.7%) report that boys have sex to increase ratings with friends. • ‘For boys it is to big up their ego, and to tell their friends. For girls it’s done for the boys so they can keep them’ • Prioritising of male sexual pleasure • Uncontrollable biological urges • Evidence of the ‘male in the head’ construction of sexual norms (Holland et al, 1998)

7. Young people’s voices • For a girl sex is done because they love the person or because they like them and want to take things further, but for boys sex is done just for the pleasure they don’t care who you are or how they feel about you. • Most girls have sex because they are in love whereas some boys see every hole as a goal. • Boys generally don't really care, they just do it because they feel like they 'NEED' it whilst most of the times with girls it means something special. • Lads do it for attention and something to show off to their mates, sex for a girl is something special in the relationship.

8. Non-consensual sex • Three quarters of girls (75.9%) and two thirds of boys (61.5%) report that it is common for boys to pressure girls into sex. • Strongest agreement evident with the statement ‘girls often go all the way when they don’t want to’, where two thirds of boys and girls concur. • Girls entirely unequivocal (100%) that pressuring a young woman for sex is unacceptable if she is drunk, or perceived by him as ‘easy’. • Nearly half of boys think it is or might be acceptable to pressure a young woman into sex if he thinks she ‘wants it’, is drunk or is his girlfriend. • Statement that ‘rapists are most often a stranger/someone you don’t know well’ - nearly four times as many boys as girls agree

9. Conclusions • Responses from young people - sexual violence, coercion and pressure are common experiences • Support wider research literature that notions of masculinity shape how sex is negotiated with respect to male entitlement, consent and young women’s capacity to resist pressure • Need to address how young men ‘do’ masculinity • Build knowledge about what consensual sex is • All sources confirm links between non-consensual sex and teenage pregnancy

10. Recommendations 1 • Addressing risk and prevention with respect to non-consensual sex • Local initiatives should be developed and supported at a strategic level • SRE programmes • the continuum of sexual violence and gendered dimensions core aspect • Consent and bodily autonomy prioritised • Media literacy • Routine screening of pregnant young women • All relevant agencies should ask all pregnant young women, as a matter of routine, about experiences of non-consensual sex, • Training for practitioners

11. Recommendations 2 • Building the evidence base on teenage pregnancy and non-consensual sex • Data should be collected and analysed • Integrating initiatives on non-consensual sex in teenage pregnancy work • Training on continuum of sexual violence • Local specialised services essential • Margins to centre

12. Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) • www.cwasu.org • A Missing Link? An Exploratory Study of the Connections Between Non-Consensual Sex and Teenage Pregnancy (2010) • m.coy@londonmet.ac.uk