6 hours ago
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This week, the Australian public has borne witness to another devastating string of sexual assault allegations. While the alleged perpetrators vary in age – some are as young as 13 – they have something in common.
They are immersed in elite institutions like private all-boys’ secondary schools – places that can socialise entitlement, exceptionalism and impunity in those within them. Of course, to the extent charges have been or are laid in these cases, those accused must be entitled to the presumption of innocence.
My thoughts are with the girls and women who have alleged these crimes, and I wish them the best in the criminal process ahead, which we know is often traumatic for victims.
In Australia and the US, adolescent boys have now overtaken adult men as the most likely perpetrators of sexual violence against an under-18-year-old. The Australian child maltreatment study found that 18.2% of Australians aged 16 to 24 have experienced sexual abuse by an adolescent before age 18, while a comparative 12% have experienced sexual abuse by an adult.
This research solidified what was intuitive to us at Teach Us Consent when we called for, and then published, 6,700 testimonies alleging peer-on-peer sexual assault in teenage years.
Across the year, my team has heard from multiple criminal lawyers who all describe a stark drop in the age of defendants and complainants in the courtroom, alongside a rise in violent sexual behaviours including strangulation, anal tearing and other forms of physical harm in youth.
These are all behaviours that children are repeatedly exposed to if they access mainstream pornography – unfortunately still the main form of sex education in Australia.
Pornographic sexual scripts that romanticise coercion, eroticise violence and depict male domination as the desirable default are victimising both boys and girls as they attempt to navigate their adolescent sexualities in a minefield of distorted desires, body expectations and gendered sexual scripts that reinforce power imbalances.
I believe this is increasing entitlement for instant sexual gratification and to women’s bodies.
Almost weekly, Teach Us Consent is approached for comment regarding another case of a teen allegedly engaging in a disturbing act of sexual violence. We know that the vast majority of rape cases never get reported, much less make the mainstream media. If we printed every act of gender-based violence that occurred in this country each day, the newspaper would run out of pages.
I’m often asked: how can nice, sweet boys be rapists?
Most rapists hold misogynistic views, condone violence, endorse rape myths and associate strongly with the masculine role. However, given how many people in our society have raped, it is not useful to understand rapists as a homogenous group.
Based on forensic research, the general theme of classification systems of identification are: if the rape committed was motivated by sexual or non-sexual desires; and then, if non-sexual, if it was anger, hate or a need for power and control.
Finally, there is the question of if the rape was impulsive or planned.
Research has categorised offenders into four types. I believe the fourth, the “opportunist rapist,” is better described as the “entitled opportunist” because it is that entitlement that often underpins the motivation.
These rapists have high social competence and their offences are predatory acts that are unplanned and show little self-impulse control.
Little anger is exhibited and minimal violence, which means their method of rape is usually sexual coercion (tricking, pressuring or forcing someone into a sexual act in a non-physical way), or using drugs or alcohol so the victim cannot consent or is unable to withdraw consent.
Their motivating factor does not come from a place of malice or sadism, but the prioritisation of their own immediate sexual gratification.
These types of rapists are often confident, powerful and opportunistic in other parts of their lives – all socially admired values in men.
This type of rapist may very well be perceived as a “nice” person, and they are often not aware of the fact that they have sexually assaulted someone until they learn about consent – if they ever do.
Importantly, the “entitled opportunist” often perpetrates for the first time when they are a teen, and – unlike the other three types of rapists – is unlikely to reoffend if held accountable for their actions.
In question time two days ago, Anthony Albanese was asked by the independent MP Zali Steggall what additional plans his government had to address the worsening scourge of gender-based violence. In his response, the prime minister noted the stark and distressing increase in youth-on-youth perpetrated sexual violence.
This awareness and recognition is welcome, because as the problem evolves, so too must our solutions.
In addition to the variety of reforms recommended by gender-based violence and child sexual assault prevention experts, this must include addressing predatory social media algorithms, ideally through a robust digital duty of care that prevents tech-induced and facilitated harm before it occurs.
At Teach Us Consent, we believe the option to turn off your recommendation algorithm and return to a chronological following-only feed could be one step in addressing this issue.
Additionally, young people deserve to understand the factors at play in pornography so they can comprehend that this form of increasingly violent and degrading adult entertainment is not a script for sex to be mimicked.
Alternative mechanisms of justice outside the criminal system must be imagined for survivors and perpetrators, because evidence shows us that effective responses that truly restore can prevent further harm – and because the criminal system is no place for children, who are perpetrating these crimes at higher rates than ever.
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Chanel Contos is the founder of Teach Us Consent and the author of Consent Laid Bare
