ABSTRACT
Sexual offending is an area in which the stakes are high. On the one hand, legal processes following on an initial allegation often cause distress to complainers. 1 On the other, the label of ‘sex offender’ is one of the most stigmatising that can be attached in contemporary society 2 and conviction should therefore not be brought about lightly. 3 It is clear that an integrated approach across a number of agencies 4 at the levels of policy, practice and law is required. 5 Within this matrix, the substantive criminal law is, at best, only one strand and it has been noted that isolated reform of its principles ‘unhelpfully abstracts it from its complex courtroom context’. 6 Nonetheless, criminal law is still a fundamental element of that matrix and the importance of clear, well-publicised, workable defi nitions of individual sex offences is obvious. Central to such defi nitions in Scots law, as in other jurisdictions, is consent.
