Episode 1 ‘Stealthing’ with special guests CERT Scotland
Hannah Daly (HD) Hello, and welcome to the first episode of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre’s new podcast series. The Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre provides emotional and practical support to survivors of sexual violence, alongside working to change attitudes about gender-based violence, and improve the experiences of survivors.
On this podcast, we discuss a whole host of issues such as sexual, and gender-based violence, trauma and the criminal justice system. Some of the issues that we discuss could cause distress, or may raise triggers for listeners – please see the content warning in the episode description before listening, and if you need to access support for an of the issues discussed in the podcast you can contact – Rape Crisis Scotland’s helpline which is open everyday 6pm-midnight on 08088 01 03 02.
I’m Hannah, and I am a sexual violence prevention worker, at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. My day to day role involves me delivering educational content to young people on the topic of sexual violence. Today I’m joined by Rebecca and Bella from CERT – the contraception education reform team at Edinburgh University.
CERT are a group that campaign for contraceptive reform and empowerment in Scotland. They investigate the experiences that Scottish people, women in particular, have had with contraception with the aim of making contraception accessible, affordable and understood.
Rebecca and Bella thanks so much for joining us today, its good to have you here. Hi Bella
Bella Henricks (BH) Hi, thank you for having us
(HD) It’s great to have you. Hi Rebecca
Rebecca Gascoigne (RG) Hi, we’re so excited to be here today.
(HD) It’s great to have you, and today they are joining us to talk about the issue of stealthing. Before today, we both posted on our organisations’ social media to find out what questions our followers had about stealthing, and we are going to try and answer some of those questions for you today.
So, I suppose the obvious question to kick off with, and a question we both got a few of is – What exactly is stealthing, what do we mean by this. Would one of you be able to fill us in on this?
(RG) Absolutely, stealthing is a form of sexual violence, specifically it’s the removal of a condom, where that had been agreement between sexual partners to use one, or belief that one was being used, as such It can be quite covert, or deceptive and it can be done without the other sexual partners knowledge, or agreement. Stealthing violates conditional consent, so the person has consented to one act – penetrative sex with a condom but then unknowingly or unwillingly engaged in a different act which is penetrative sex without a condom. It’s also important to highlight that stealthing is not widely recognised as a form of sexual violence, even thought it definitely is.
(BH) And, to add on to that, I think that CERT think it’s very important to note that stealthing is not the accidental misuse of condoms., putting on a condom incorrectly, condoms coming off during sex, using expired condoms is not stealthing. Outright refusal to use a condom, or failure to discuss contraception with a sexual partner, and subsequent regret from either partner, regarding unprotected sex is also not stealthing.
(HD) Right, I think that’s really helpful to draw that distinction. It sounds like stealthing is something that is done perpetrated by one sexual partner to another, deliberately, and that’s what makes it sexual violence, as you said Rebecca. I think as far as I am concerned, the issue of stealthing is indicative of a wider conversation that needs to happen about consent. We are hearing more and more young people telling us about having sexual experiences where something happens that they did not consent to and did not want to do I think that’s it’s a conversation about consent being an ongoing thing. Just because someone wants to do something sexual with someone else doesn’t mean that the consent part is over, there should be ongoing communication and consent seeking throughout a sexual encounter or relationship with someone, especially when it comes to things like condom use. Consent should be explicit and ongoing, and I think consent is something we will talk about a lot during this conversation, and is one of the key issues in relation to stealthing.
One of the other key questions that we got when we posted on social media was, who is affected by stealthing, and how does it impact them.
I know that the team at CERT have carried out a piece of research into stealthing, the extent of it, and its impacts so I imagine you’ll have a lot of valuable insight to give us on this. This report that you’ve put together is looking into the need for criminalisation of stealthing, and it’s included a nationwide survey, that you said has revealed the extent of stealthing and the level of public understanding. Did your research tell us anything about who experiences stealthing?
(RG) Yeah, stealthing can happen to people of any gender, as it can be both vaginal, and anal. Our research did indicate that women who have sex with men are particularly affected by stealthing. It’s important to highlight that the impacts of stealthing on the victim can be both physical, and psychological.
(HD) Yes, and that’s something that we got a lot of questions about, the impact that stealthing can have, and I know that this is something that your research looked into quite a lot, can you tell us a bit about what you discovered?
(BH) Stealthing, we found, can cause sexually transmitted infections, and blood-borne viruses for either partner and can also result in unintended pregnancy. In our survey of 219 participants we found that 47% had either been stealthed or knew someone who had. Out of those people, we found that pregnancy was a consequence of stealthing for 14% of individuals that had experienced it. 21% of those experiencing stealthing subsequently contracted a STI ranging from chlamydia to genital herpes and HIV). 3% of individuals became pregnant and contracted a STI as a result of stealthing. So there is a really massive range of health related consequences.
(HD) That’s really significant. Obviously, as a rape crisis centre, we know that alongside the physical impacts that stealthing can have, it is also likely to have psychological and emotional impacts These impacts can be similar to those who experience any form of sexual violence, common experiences can include things like: feeling of violation of trust which I imagine is really relevant in the issue of stealthing, I mean especially imagine if you are in a relationship with the perpetrator, which we know is quite common. A feeling of disempowerment or having your bodily autonomy violated. Fear and mistrust of sex or sexual partners following the experience. And something that you mentioned earlier, Rebecca, about people not perceiving stealthing as sexual assault or violence is something that I would imagine could really contribute to the psychological and emotional impact of being a victim of stealthing.
If you have experienced stealthing, or any form of sexual violence and are feeling like this then – please know that there are resources and support services that you can turn to. You can talk to a trusted friend or family member about how you are feeling, seek formal support from the Rape Crisis Scotland helpline, and the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre provides face to face support for people who have experienced sexual violence of any kind. So please if you are feeling this way as a result of experiencing sexual violence, do reach out if you feel able.
So, this is a really relevant question in relation to the work that you at CERT do and this report that you just put together. So, a lot of people aren’t very clear and want to know, is stealthing actually illegal? I know that as part of your report that you carried out a legal analysis to try and shed a little light on this, so could you say a little about that?
(RG) Stealthing is illegal in England and Wales, as it has been found to violate conditional consent, which as we mentioned earlier is where consent is dependent on a certain condition being met, for example a condom being used. However, Scots law is different, and there is no specific law in Scotland that outlaws stealthing, and there has never been a conviction in Scotland regarding this act, here. References to stealthing in Scots law are only through inference, which means that police can act with their own judgement and prejudices, and as such we really need legal backing to ensure that stealthing is tackled comprehensively under the same framework. The final point to highlight here is that there is also a lack of public awareness about this issue, despite the growing numbers of people – especially young people – reporting experiences of it.
(HD) I think that’s really helpful, to clarify that difference between England and Wales and Scotland in terms of the law around stealthing. Obviously, CERT are campaigning to make stealthing illegal in Scotland – could you tell us a bit about why you think this is so important?
(BH) As Rebecca said, there is a real lack of public awareness, so one of the reasons that we woild like it to be illegal is so that people can be aware that this exists it’s not OK, and it’s a form of sexual violence. We know it can cause immense physical and mental trauma – pregnancy, STI risk and serious and all-encompassing emotional consequences. The exclusion of stealthing in consent law prevents consistency in judgment of cases, undermines efforts of a transparent reporting process and may discourage those who have experienced stealthing to seek justice. The legal system currently does not fulfil its duty of protecting individuals’ liberties/rights. So ultimately, criminalising stealthing for us, would increase the public’s awareness of the offence, and could create a nation-wide conversation about why it is so detrimental, hopefully leading to it becoming a less-prevalent form of sexual assault .
(HD) One of the most common questions we got on social media was, what should I do if I experience stealthing and also what should we do about the issue of stealthing more broadly. I suppose, you’ve answered that a little already in terms of getting involved in your campaign to criminalise stealthing and why you think that’s so important – that it’s about public awareness as well as the legal change.
So, if you’ve experienced stealthing yourself and you’re wondering what you should do about it – the important thing we would say is it’s up to you what you do, there is no should or must about it. If you’ve experienced stealthing – recently or a long time ago – we are sorry that happened to you, and you should know that it wasn’t your fault. You can talk to someone trusted or seek support from a support service such as rape crisis. If you’re a student, which I know some people listening might be, there are particular services that support students. At Edinburgh University, ERCC have a counsellor who is on campus supporting student survivors one day a week. As well as this, there are other student specific services that you probably know more about than me, and can maybe tell us a bit more about? You might also want to seek out services such as STI or pregnancy testing if you’ve experienced stealthing, and I think CERT can probably tell us a bit more about services that can offer this in Edinburgh.
(BH) Yes, so in terms of Edinburgh specific services, the Lothian sexual health website has a lot of different resources and information. There is free STI testing at the Chalmers Centre which is very accessible to students. The Bristo Square Pharmacy, on campus provide access to emergency contraception. Free emergency contraception, throughout Scotland is available at most pharmacies, Sexual Health Clinics, GPs and A&E departments. Finally, for Edinburgh University students, The Advice Place offers pregnancy tests, STI tests, contraception advice and free safer sex products through the C-Card scheme. The Advice Place office is currently closed, but you can still access products from the C-Card scheme at Potterrow reception.
(HD) That’s great, and I know we’ve probably listed quite a lot of information there about services, and just to reiterate that we will include all of those things we’ve mentioned in the podcast description and on the ERCC website.
So, the other question that we had along with this was, what should be done about the issue of stealthing, what do we need to do to stop this from happening? I think from my perspective, as an education worker, my answer is obviously going to be …education. Through communication, influencing peer groups positively. The work that I do is mainly taking place in schools and colleges, talking to young people about sexual violence and consent. I feel really strongly that prevention and education is the key to issues like this. We would recognise that making acts of sexual violence illegal doesn’t necessarily stop them from happening so we need other approaches. Education, specifically about STIS and Sexual Health. Issues like consent and sexual violence being a compulsory part of young people’s education. And the work that you’re doing, pushing the campaign into mainstream media so that adults can learn about Stealthing, and then educate their children. So, how can people specifically get involved in the CERT’s campaign around stealthing?
(RG) We would love for people to get involved in our campaign, the report we have been discussing, will be published in the coming weeks, once the Scottish Gov reconvenes after election/summer break we will be lobbying them for legislative change, in the meantime follow the CERT social media channels for updates and info on how to get involved. You can access CERT’s website at www.certscotland.com , you can also follow us on Instagram @certscotland and you can like our Facebook page – CERT – to stay up to date with our events, recruitment and research projects!
(HD) And again, just to highlight that the links for all of those pages will be included on the ERCC.scot/ podcast. Thank you to our wonderful guests from CERT, Bella and Rebecca, for being with us today, and thanks for sharing all about this report that sounds like a great piece of work.
(RG) Thanks for having us today, it’s been great to talk about stealthing, and hopefully there will be change coming over the coming months and years.
(HD) Thank you for listening to our first podcast, and hopefully we will see you next time.