What are the implications of the ways in which consent is understood by men who have been accused of rape?

This study will realign the academic gaze from a focus on rape victims and their testimonies to a focus on those accused and their
understandings of consent. Current academic literature around rape and consent has focused predominantly on victims' understandings of
consent and experiences of assault (e.g. Palmer 2011). Building on but departing from such work, this study focuses on the accused in order to
discern whether their understandings of consent have implications in addressing 'rape culture', understood to mean the prevailing attitudes
towards consent that condone rape (e.g. Temkin & Krahé 2008) within the court room and beyond. This study will 'study up' (Nader 1972) the
legal system, employing a three part methodology consisting of non-participant observation in court, critical discourse analysis of court
transcripts and narrative-style interviews with convicted offenders. This will allow for a comparison of the narratives presented in court with
the understandings held by individuals accused of rape. In so doing, this study will provide a contribution to what is an ongoing and relevant
debate on consent that has become increasingly prominent in the media.
My research will address the following questions:
1) In what ways is knowledge about consent produced by men who have been accused of rape?
2) How are understandings of consent performed during court by men who have been accused of rape and their legal representation?
3) What are the implications of this within the courtroom and for understandings of rape more broadly?