Questions as to the mental capacity of an individual to consent to sex are an increasingly important aspect of legal scholarship and professional practice for those working in care. Recent case law has added new layers of complexity, requiring that a person must be able to understand that the other person needs to consent and can withdraw that consent. While this has been welcomed for asserting the importance of the interpersonal dynamics of sex, it has significant implications for practice and for the day-to-day lives of people with cognitive impairments.

This collection brings together academics, practitioners and organisations to consider the challenges posed by the current legal framework, and future directions for law, policy and practice.

Beverley Clough is Professor of Law and Social Justice at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Laura Pritchard-Jones is Senior Lecturer in Law at Keele University.

Foreword by Kirsty Keywood and Margaret Flynn

Introduction - Beverley Clough and Laura Pritchard- Jones

PART I: Legal Developments

1. Historical Perspectives on Law, Sexual Intimacy and Capacity - Ralph Sandland

2. Sexual Capacity: Are There Questions the Law Should Not Ask? - Alex Ruck Keene, Allegra Enefer and Alan Cusack

3. Capacity to Consent to Sex in the Civil and Criminal Law: Blurring the Boundaries - Jaime Lindsey and Karen Brennan

4. Reflections from Practice: The Practicalities of Assessing Sexual Mental Capacity - Claire Bates

PART II: The Law in Practice

5. Where Is the Love? Promoting a Rights- based, Personcentred and Relational Approach to Social Work Practice - Becky Squires and Hannah Morgan

6. Promoting Human Rights around Intimacy for People Living with Dementia: A Psychiatric Perspective - Oluwatoyin Sorinmade and Carmelle Peisah

7. "I just felt that I was somebody who was there to be abused": A Sociological Analysis of Structural Causes for Delayed Naming of Sexual Violence at the Intersection of Disability and Gender - Andrea Hollomotz

8. Reflections from Practice: The Legal Labyrinth of Sexual Capacity - Balancing Rights with Risks - Lorraine Currie and Neil Allen

Conclusion - Beverley Clough and Laura Pritchard-Jones