Sexual Assault and Misconduct Terms and Definitions
The following terms and definitions are meant to clarify and aid in communication about behaviors related to sexual assault and harassment.
Affirmative Consent
Affirmative consent means affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. Affirmative consent must be given without coercion, force, threats, or intimidation.
It is the responsibility of each person involved in the sexual activity to ensure that he or she has the affirmative consent of the other or others to engage in the sexual activity. Lack of protest or resistance does not mean consent, nor does silence mean consent. Affirmative consent must be ongoing throughout a sexual activity and can be revoked at any time. The existence of a dating relationship between the persons involved, or the fact of past sexual relations between them, should never by itself be assumed to be an indicator of consent.
Consent cannot be given when a person is asleep or unconscious, or incapacitated due to the influence of drugs, alcohol, or medication. Consent also cannot be given if a person is unable to communicate due to a mental or physical condition. ​
In September 2014, California passed Senate Bill 967, amending the education code to require public education institutions to educate students about affirmative consent, and to uphold affirmative consent standards and protocols to ensure the safety of students, faculty, and staff.
Coercion
Persuading someone to involuntarily do something by threatening, intimidating, or using some form of pressure or force.
Dating Violence
Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim.
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is defined as abuse committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim and includes felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by:
- a current or former spouse of the victim;
- by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common;
- by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse;
- by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under California law; or
- by any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person’s acts under
California law.
Force
To make someone do something against their will.
Incapacitation
Being unable to move or function.
Rape
Non-consensual intercourse that involves the threat of force, violence, immediate and unlawful bodily injury, or threats of future retaliation.
Retaliation
Being subjected to unfavorable actions, treatment, or conditions, as a form of revenge.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical contact of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment is conduct that explicitly or implicitly affects a person’s employment or education or interferes with a person’s work or educational performance or creates an environment such that a reasonable person would find the conduct intimidating, hostile, or offensive.
Sexual harassment may include incidents between any members of the District community, including faculty and other academic appointees, staff, students, student employees, coaches, interns, and non-student or non-employee participants in District programs. Sexual harassment may occur in hierarchical relationships, between peers or between individuals of the same sex.
NOCCCD’s Board Policy 3430 Prohibition of Harassment
Sexual Assault
Sexual assault occurs when physical, sexual activity is engaged in without consent, or when a person is unable to consent to the activity. The activity or conduct may include physical force, violence, threat, intimidation, ignoring objections, causing the other person's intoxication or incapacitation, or taking advantage of the other person's incapacitation (including voluntary intoxication).
NOCCCD’s Board Policy 3540 Sexual Assaults on Campus
NOCCCD’s Administrative Procedure 3540 Sexual Assaults on Campus
Sexual Violence
Sexual violence refers to physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent (e.g., due to the student’s age or use of drugs or alcohol, or because an intellectual or other disability prevents the student from having the capacity to give consent). A number of different acts fall into the category of sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual abuse, and sexual coercion. Sexual violence can be carried out by school employees, other students, or third parties. All such acts of sexual violence are forms of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX.
Stalking
Stalking is engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that causes a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety or the safety of others, or to suffer substantial emotional distress.