The Sex & Ethics research and violence prevention project began in 2005 as a joint project of the University of Western Sydney and the NSW Rape Crisis Centre. This project was funded through a grant from the Australian Research Council 2005-2008.

The project began by interviewing young women and men aged 16-25 of diverse sexualities from rural and city locations in NSW Australia. We wanted to understand how young women and men negotiate sexual relationships and their views on the adequacy of current sexuality and sexual assault prevention education. They identified that their education failed to prepare them for the complexity of sexual intimacy including issues around consent, sexual negotiation and pressured sex. The young people felt existing programmes focused primarily on risk and danger and excluded positive skills for ethical intimacy. As an alternative, the Sex & Ethics education programme focuses on promoting ethical non-violence skills that assist young people to negotiate sexual intimacy positively.

The findings of these interviews informed the development of a six week education program for young people. The program provides young women and men opportunities to learn new ways of negotiating sexual intimacy. This is based on a sexual ethics framework developed by Moira Carmody PhD who has over 25 years of experience in working with young people and on sexual assault prevention education.