How Does Alcohol Use Relate to Sexual Consent? A Scoping Review.

People consume alcohol prior to both consensual and nonconsensual sexual activity. To better inform education and prevention efforts targeting the coalescing of alcohol, sexual consent, and sexual violence, we conducted a scoping review of 57 articles published between 1999 and 2024 that examined the relationship between alcohol use and sexual consent. Most articles were qualitative and investigated how alcohol related to perceptions of consent, internal consent feelings, and external consent communication. Each article's findings were coded to assess how alcohol was related to sexual consent (i.e. the directionality, positive, negative). Our scoping review highlights how alcohol shapes the consent processes beginning in public settings (e.g. pubs, parties), and one's perceptions of drinking behaviors within these settings. In terms of consent perceptions, people tended to interpret sex as more consensual when people transitioned from public to private settings. Regarding internal consent, alcohol use seemed to increase consent feelings of arousal and desire, but not feelings of comfort, safety, or wantedness. Regarding external consent, low levels of alcohol use seemed to increase some forms of communication (e.g. more explicit/verbal external consent), while higher levels seemed to increase other forms of communication (i.e. more implicit/nonverbal external consent). Intoxicated consent was often viewed as more understandable within established relationships. Overall, alcohol was interwoven into people's processes of sexual consent, revealing situations that defy binary definitions of consensual versus nonconsensual sex.