Joseph MassoProf. FeeleyPOSC 115A06 May 2014First Draft of the Affirmative Consent StandardSummaryThe ambiguity contained in sentencing rape cases has become too important to be perpetuated without any formal resolution in place. The affirmative consent standard aims to neutralize this lack of clarity regarding consent between the two parties involved in a sexual relationship by requiring both parties to ask for and receive a verbal yes before engaging in any relationship. Sexual consent should never be taken for granted, and any inconsistencies in state or federal law can be ameliorated by using this principle. Problem/Issue Statement: Over the past thirty years, courts have expanded the legal parameters of rape to include withdrawal of consent after penetration. Courts and state legislatures across the country should seek to modernize rape laws to protect all victims of nonconsensual sex, regardless of when those victims demonstrate their lack of consent. In English common law, a rape conviction required proof that the offender had used force or threatened to use force against the victim. There is a lot of contradiction between states regarding consent. In an effort to eliminate moral ambiguity or the issue of consent, an affirmative consent standard should be established that refines the classification of consent from “not saying no to sex” to saying yes to sex with obvious and enthusiastic words or actions. Rape in the United States is defined as “an act of sexual intercourse performed against the will of a person by force, violence, duress, threat, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury to the person or another.” Courts have expanded this definition to include withdrawal of consent after penalties...... middle of paper ......r an affirmative consent standard, the law assumes that a woman will not grant consent unless be asked. It will be up to the man to demonstrate such consent if the woman, in her complaint, claims that such consent was not given; it will therefore be his account of the events of the evening that will be examined by the court, rather than that of the woman. What affirmative consent represents, then, is a change in how society, and particularly the courts, look at the process of consenting to sexual intercourse. Affirmative consent recommends that sex be seen as an act that should be performed voluntarily by both parties and that both parties' opinion is equally valid in the eyes of the legal system. Affirmative consent marks a model of sexual interaction in which both participants take responsibility for their own desires and actions.