Abhishek Sharma and Shweta Malhotra are a perfect couple—young, well-educated, employed in lucrative corporate jobs in Mumbai, and very much in love. A misunderstanding and a fallout between them results in a night of drinking and passion for Abhishek. The next morning, Abhishek is charged with raping the underage daughter of a powerful politician and arrested. His entire life and career falls apart. He is put on a media trial and one by a real court. Fired from his job and branded as a rapist, he is forced to turn to the aunt of the very woman who left him, for help. Enter Isha Gupta, the calm yet determined lawyer who will pull out all stops to secure his release. The thrilling book takes readers from the plush offices and high rises of Mumbai to its gritty chawls, unraveling deep buried secrets and behind the scene conspiracies. Will Isha be able to save Abhishek and bring the real criminal to justice?

An introduction to issues of sexual consent, covering key strands of feminist thought, how sexual consent is negotiated in practice, the influence of popular culture, and more. The #MeToo movement has focused public attention on the issue of sexual consent. People of all genders, from all walks of life, have stepped forward to tell their stories of sexual harassment and violation. In a predictable backlash, others have taken to mass media to inquire plaintively if "flirting" is now forbidden. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers a nuanced introduction to sexual consent by a writer who is both a scholar and an activist on this issue. It has become clear from discussions of the recent high-profile cases of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and others that there is no clear agreement over what constitutes consent or non-consent and how they are expressed and perceived in sexual situations. This book presents key strands of feminist thought on the subject of sexual consent from across academic and activist communities and covers the history of research on consent in such fields as psychology and feminist legal studies. It discusses how sexual consent is negotiated in practice, from "No means no" to "Yes means yes," and describes what factors might limit individual agency in such negotiations. It examines how popular culture, including pornography, romance fiction, and sex advice manuals, shapes our ideas of consent; explores the communities at the forefront of consent activism; and considers what meaningful social change in this area might look like. Going beyond the conventional cisgender, heterosexual norm, the book lists additional resources for those seeking to improve their practice of consent, survivors of sexual violence, and readers who want to understand contemporary debates on this issue in more depth.

The issue of acquaintance rape has been gaining increased prominence in recent years. In this book Joan McGregor analyses the ethical and legal problems that arise in connection with acquaintance rape cases. She discusses with great clarity and precision the complexities involved in notions such as consent, force, autonomy, power, intention and the impairment of responsibility through drugs, alcohol and mental illness. Arguing that criminal rape laws are too narrow, capturing only cases where there is clearly recognized physical violence and resistance from the victim, she sets out a new proposal for how the criminal law should deal with cases of nonconsensual sex which captures the ideals of a liberal political society and in particular the idea of equality. This book explains fully what it means when a woman says no and means no.

Representing Rape is the first feminist analysis of the language of sexual assault trials from the perspective of linguists. Susan Ehrlich argues that language is central to all legal settings - specifically sexual harassment and acquaintance rape hearings where linguistic descriptions of the events are often the only type of evidence available. Language does not simply reflect but helps to construct the character of the people and events under investigation. The book is based around a case study of the trial of a male student accused of two instances of sexual assault in two different settings: a university tribunal and a criminal trial. This case is situated within international studies on rape trials and is relevant to the legal systems of the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. She shows how culturally-dominant notions about rape percolate through the talk of sexual assault cases in a variety of settings and ultimately shape their outcome. Ehrlich hopes that to understand rape trials in this way is to recognize their capacity for change. By highlighting the underlying preconceptions and prejudices in the language of courtrooms today, this important book paves the way towards a fairer judicial system for the future.

Revisiting the doctrine of implied consent in Canadian sexual assault law.

Using a wealth of court records, Colonizing Consent shows how rape cases were caught up in, and helped shape, the major political debates in colonial South Africa.

This new book for scholars and university administrators offers a provocative critique of sexual justice language and policy in higher education around the concept of consent. Complicating the idea that consent is plain common sense, Campuses of Consent shows how normative and inaccurate concepts about gender, gender identity, and sexuality erase queer or trans students' experiences and perpetuate narrow, regressive gender norms and individualist frameworks for understanding violence. Theresa A. Kulbaga and Leland G. Spencer prove that consent in higher education cannot be meaningfully separated from larger issues of institutional and structural power and oppression. While sexual assault advocacy campaigns, such as It's On Us, federal legislation from Title IX to the Clery Act, and more recent affirmative-consent measures tend to construct consent in individualist terms, as something given or received by individuals, the authors imagine consent as something that can be constructed systemically and institutionally: in classrooms, campus communication, and shared campus spaces.

This book is set against the background of the 'justice gap' in sexual assault cases - the dramatic gap between the number of offences recorded by the police and the number of convictions. It seeks to examine the attitudinal problems which bedevil this area of law and possible strategies for addressing them. Written by a professor of law and a professor of psychology, it reviews evidence from socio-legal and social cognition research and presents new data drawn both from interviews with judges and barristers and from studies with prospective lawyers and members of the public. In the final part, it considers different ways in which rape trials could be improved and suggests steps that could be taken to change public attitudes about sexual assault.

With conversations about sexual violence, consent, and bodily autonomy dominating national conversations it can be easy to get lost in the onslaught of well-intended but often poorly executed messages. Through an exploration of research, scholarly expertise, and practical real-world application we can better formulate an understanding of what consent is, how we create consent cultures, and where the path forward lies. This book is designed with both educators and parents in mind. The tools highlighted throughout help adults unlearn harmful narratives about consent, boundaries, and relationships so that they can begin their work internally through modeling and self-reflection. We then uncover what consent truly is and is not, how culture plays an integral role in interpersonal scripting, and how teaching consent as a life skill can look in and out of the classroom. By integrating the need for consent to be taught in schools and homes we build bridges between the spaces where children learn and create alliances in the often-daunting task of eradicating rape-culture. This book is perfect for those already comfortable and familiar with this topic as well as those newer to understanding consent as a paradigm. Starting with a strong historical and research-informed foundation the book builds into action-oriented guidelines for conversations, curriculum, and community activism. This blended approach creates a guidebook that is unlike anything else on the market today.

According to the World Health Organization, one in three women will be sexually or physically assaulted in her lifetime. These rates are very similar for non-binary people and other feminized people, too. This is rape culture, and young adults are living through it here and now. Fired Up about Consent is a practical, survivor-informed primer for young people who want to learn how to build joyful, mutually satisfying sex lives and relationships. In these pages, author Sarah Ratchford defines rape and sexual assault, busts the myths behind toothless messaging and outdated advice, and provides sex-positive scripts on how to ask for and offer a clear, enthusiastic, and freely given “Yes!” Along the way, Ratchford touches on topics such as #MeToo, gender identity, masturbation, virginity, porn, sex work, reporting assault, and more, all through a radically inclusive and intersectional lens. The message is loud and clear: not only is consent sexy, it’s mandatory—and everyone deserves frank and empowering literacy around it. Only with empathy, compassion, and resistance can we move forward into a new culture of consent.