Around half of young adults support jail time for people who remove condoms without their partner’s consent during sex, according to a new survey published in the journal PLOS One.
This “sex trend,” as some have called it, unfortunately, isn’t all that new. Known as stealthing, it pretty much involves sneakily removing a condom during sex without your partner knowing. Many view it as a form of rape, with almost 9 in 10 individuals deeming it a form of sexual assault. Not to mention, this could also increase the risk of contracting STIs. Nearly all survey respondents of young people in the UK at least view it as wrong.
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Even further, about half of people surveyed believe non-consensual condom removal should be punishable with prison time—especially if it resulted in an unwanted pregnancy.
“In cases where victims do not discover they have been stealthed, their reproductive health is compromised as they are unable to procure emergency contraception and are therefore at a higher risk of unplanned pregnancy,” the authors of the research explained.
Stealthing is already considered rape in England and Wales. This new survey—which included over 1,700 people aged 18-25—sheds even more light on the prevalent issue and popular “sex trend.”
Thankfully, a vast majority of respondents do view the trend as a crime.
“I was really pleased to see that most people saw it as a violation of consent and that they thought it was wrong,” said Geraldine Barrett, senior author and a social scientist at University College London’s Institute for Women’s Health. “That was very reassuring [to see] in the population.”
However, different contexts and scenarios revealed different attitudes toward stealthing. For example, slightly more people thought it was less of an issue in a committed relationship versus a casual hookup. Others also thought it was more punishable if the woman became pregnant versus her becoming depressed.
Regardless of these opinions, stealthing has been legally recognized as a form of rape, as it strips the other person of their right to consent.
