Review of ‘Consent to Sexual Relations’ by Alan Wertheimer

In this clearly written, impressively researched, and engaging book, Alan Wertheimer makes a distinctive and important contribution to the contemporary literature on the nature and value of consent to sexual relations. Wertheimer’s effort is two-fold. First, and as an informative yet logically distinct backdrop, he provides a specific theory of sexual desire and behavior, viz., evolutionary psychology. Second, he identifies and defends moral and legal principles of valid consent to sex. In chapter-length discussions, Wertheimer shows why matters of consent are significantly more complex than many, including influential feminist scholars, recognize, and in so doing lays the groundwork for the theoretical core of his book: a rights-based theory of sexual coercion. This theory provides powerful grounds for determining when conduct constitutes coercion of the sort that nullifies consent and, when combined with numerous and often-ingenious hypothetical cases, teases out principles of moral and legal consent that are both coherent and reasonable. As a result of this combination of considerations, Wertheimer’s book is unique among recent efforts in this area and the analyses and arguments presented should be of great interest to social psychologists as well as those working in normative ethics and jurisprudence.

Title	Review of ‘Consent to Sexual Relations’ by Alan Wertheimer
Creator	Panichas, George E.
Publisher	Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy
Academic Department	Philosophy
Division	Humanities
Organization	Lafayette College
Date Issued	March 2006
Date Available	2023-02-09
Type	Article
Language	English
Standard Identifier	Handle 10385/b8515q00r
Standard Identifier	DOI 10.1080/00926230500443613
Permalink	http://hdl.handle.net/10385/b8515q00r
Rights Statement	In Copyright
Rights Holders	Taylor & Francis