Th sexual ethics project is a joint research and education project of the University of Western Sydney and the NSW Rape Crisis Centre. This project is funded through a grant from the Australian Research Council 2005-2008.

The project aims to understand how young women and men aged 16-25 of diverse sexualities negotiate sexual relationships and their views on the adequacy of current sexuality and sexual assault prevention education. In particular we want to assess whether education based on sexual ethics is useful to young people in negotiating sexual intimacy and can assist in preventing sexual assault in dating contexts.

Our report on Stage 1 of the research titled "Developing ethical sexual lives: young people, sex and sexual assault prevention" was launched on December 8 2006. It provides information based on interviews with young people from rural and metropolitan Sydney, Australia. A PDF version of a four-page summary of the report is downloadable here.

Associate Professor Moira Carmody has written about the results of this research in her book "Sex and Ethics: Young people and ethical sex" to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in December 2008. The six week Sexual Ethics Education Programme will be published as a companion volume.

For any enquiries regarding the sexual ethics project please contact Moira Carmody on m.carmody@uws.edu.au.