Browsing by Author "Wuori, Valma"

Background The revised, consent-based legislation on sexual offences entered into force in Finland 1.1.2023. The change in legislation may affect how adolescents self-label their sexual experiences. By exploring what adolescents think of consent, professionals can better understand their sexual experiences and potentially facilitate the disclosure of child sexual abuse. While there is a vast amount of international research on consent, the attitudes of Finnish adolescents remain unknown. Additionally, professionals can help adolescents disclose by improving investigative interviewing. The present study aimed to explore what adolescents think of consent and what wishes they have for investigative interviews. Methods 160 Finnish adolescents from 14 to 18 years old (51.97 % women, 36.18 % men) answered an online survey that was created for the purpose of this study. The survey had 32 questions: seventeen related to consent, eight to interviews and seven to background variables. The final sample had 152 participants and the results were analyzed qualitatively and statistically using nonparametric tests and ordinal regressions. Results 92.11 % of the participants thought they knew what consent meant. Most had heard of consent on the internet or in school. The participants also wanted information on consent from the same sources. Adolescents thought that consent should be communicated explicitly and verbally. Nonetheless, most participants answered that both characters in vignettes had an equal opportunity to give consent despite the lack of explicit and verbal consent cues. Regret, alcohol intoxication, pressure from a partner and age difference affected consent perceptions. Most participants evaluated that the vignette characters didn’t have an equal opportunity to give consent with a three-year age gap and even fewer thought so as the age difference grew. Consent perceptions did not vary by participant age or gender, vignette target age or gender, vignette agent gender or whether the vignette target and agent were same-sex or not. Most participants preferred face-to-face interview to tele-forensic interview but most importantly, the participants wanted to decide that for themselves. The participants wanted to be interviewed at a police station or at social services without a support person. Before the interview, the participants wanted to know that who is going to interview them and what happens to them after the interview. The participants wished for a safe and calm space to talk about their experiences to a person that listens to them and gives them as much information as possible. Conclusions According to this study, adolescents’ views on consents differ when discussed in theory and while evaluating vignettes. The results are in congruence with previous research. Regret, alcohol intoxication, pressure from a partner and age difference affect adolescents’ consent perceptions. The wishes for investigative interviews implicate that access to someone you can trust and expecting others to believe you can facilitate disclosure. Interview policies can be improved by further research, which may lead to better and safer investigations at best.