Criminalising Kink: "Rough Sex" and Legal Interpretations of BDSM
Criminalising Kink: "Rough Sex" and Legal Interpretations of BDSM
Presenter: Alexandra Fanghanel, Ph.D.
Sunday, May 18, 2025, 10am-noon (US Pacific) / 11am-1:00pm (US Mountain) / noon-2:00pm (US Central) / 1-3:00 pm (US Eastern) / 6-8:00pm (BST - London) / 7-9:00pm (CEST - Prague, Berlin, Stockholm); 2 hours.
Please use 1:00pm/1300 (Eastern), New York City, as a reference to confirm your local start time.
To register for the webinar, please visit: https://forms.gle/sBXEhoBr52VT7YH56
Attendees may earn 2 Continuing Education (CE) credits
Cost: Attendance is free for all CARAS subscribers.
Attendance with CE credit is free for CARAS Professional and Student subscribers, and $40 for others.
Attendance without CE credit for non-subscribers is $25
Pre-registration is required. Registration will close at 3pm (Pacific)/6pm (Eastern) on Friday, May 16, 2025 Please register early!
Abstract
Recent decades have seen the rise of criminal cases in which people accused of violent offences against a person occurring during a sexual encounter claim that what happened between the parties was consensual. This so-called ‘rough sex’ defence relies on tropes of kinky or sadomasochistic sexual practice to function as a coherent defence in the court room.
This session looks at the different ways in which alternative sexualities have been policed, controlled and stigmatised. Predominantly using legal examples, it examines how kink or BDSM narratives are used to fabricate a rough sex defence. What assumptions about BDSM do they rely upon? What is the difference between rough sex and BDSM?
Firstly, we will examine what has happened over the past 20 years in terms of the rise of the use of this “rough sex” defence in criminal cases. Then, we will examine how practitioners of BDSM define their own practice alongside the ways in which these same practices appear to be understood in criminal cases. What is the relationship, if any, between “rough sex” and BDSM? We will examine what the implications of the co-option of BDSM in criminal-legal discourse are for practitioners of kinky sex who, in other contexts, may already find their sexual practices subject to stigma, medicalization, and discrimination.
This presentation will be relevant to a broad audience, including community members, clinicians who work with kinky clients, and researchers interested in issues such as consent, legal frameworks used to address sexuality, and uses of “BDSM” as a defence in legal proceedings today.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:
Describe legal frameworks that are used in police actions and court proceedings that involve BDSM.
Contrast the relationship between subcultural understandings of BDSM practice, and framings of BDSM commonly found in mainstream culture that may be presented in legal proceedings.
With reference to at least one court case, assess a “rough sex” defence with reference to norms found within today’s kink/BDSM communities.
Presentation Content Level: Introductory - Intermediate. This webinar will provide an introduction to the topic but also provide an opportunity for discussion at a more advanced level that presupposes basic knowledge of alternative sexualities communities.
Disclosures: There is no conflict of interest or commercial support for this presentation.
About the Presenter
Alexandra Fanghanel, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Greenwich, UK. She is co-lead of the Gender, Deviance and Society Research Group. She researches public space, securitisation, and sexuality. Dr. Fanghanel is also a member of the CARAS Institutional Review Board (IRB). Her recent book, Disrupting Rape Culture: Public Space, Sexuality and Revolt was published in paperback in 2020 by Bristol University Press.
References
Bauer, R. (2020). Queering Consent: Negotiating Critical Consent in Les-Bi-Trans-Queer BDSM Contexts. Sexualities, 24(5-6), 767–783. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460720973902
Burch, R. L., & Salmon, C. (2019). The Rough Stuff: Understanding Aggressive Consensual Sex. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 5, 383–393. https://doi.org/10.1007/S40806-019-00196-Y
Dunkley, C. R., & Brotto, L. A. (2020). The Role of Consent in the Context of BDSM. Sex Abuse, 32(6), 657–678. https://doi.org/10.1177/1079063219842847
Gavey, N. (2024). Deconstructing ‘Rough Sex’ in a New Zealand Murder Trial: Beyond the Modern Mythology of Everyday Kink. Social & Legal Studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/09646639241292689 [Open Access]
Namaste, V., Gaspar, M., Lavoie, S., McClelland, A., Sims, E., Tigchelaar, A., Dietzel, C., & Drummond, J. D. (2020). Willed Ambiguity: An Exploratory Study of Sexual Misconduct Affecting Sexual Minority Male University Students in Canada. Sexualities, 24(8), 1041–1060. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460720947308
Sheff, E. (2021). Kinky Sex Gone Wrong: Legal Prosecutions Concerning Consent, Age Play, and Death via BDSM. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50(3), 761–771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01866-w
About the CARAS Education Program
CARAS is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CARAS maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
For more information about the CARAS Education Program, including CE policies and procedures, please visit https://caras-researchlink.org/education