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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2025

Beverley Clough
Affiliation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
Laura Pritchard-Jones
Affiliation:
Keele University
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Summary

Sexual and intimate relationships for anyone can be challenging, emotional and rewarding. People with intellectual or cognitive disabilities, however, have often been denied opportunities to develop such relationships, thanks to a historical legal framework that considered them to be ‘defectives’, ‘monsters’ and in need of confinement (Sandland, 2013), and professional practice that has been – and, in many ways, arguably continues to be – considerably risk averse (Bartlett, 2010). More recent developments in the law, in part driven by the empowering ethos of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), have been transformative. In England and Wales, the legal framework contained in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and associated case law has attempted to give a clearer steer on how to assess a person's capacity to make decisions about sexual relationships, as well as other types of decisions that may also be a feature of intimate relationships, such as contact with other individuals, and the use of social media and the internet. Within this legal framework, however, supporting people with decision making about intimate relationships remains complex, daunting and requires a balancing of many principles, including how best to promote a person's right to have sexual or intimate relationships, and the extent to which they should be protected from abusive or exploitative intimate relationships, or be prevented from possibly abusing others themselves.

In England and Wales, it is these ideas that recent developments in the case law have had to grapple with. In A Local Authority v JB (JB), the court was faced with a situation involving a 36- year- old man who had a ‘complex diagnosis’ of autistic spectrum disorder and impaired cognition. He had been living in a supported residential placement for the last five years, under close supervision which significantly curtailed his freedom to socialise with others. This close supervision was put in place purportedly to prevent him from behaving in sexually inappropriate ways towards women.

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Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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