XIII World Meeting, International Society for Research on Aggression

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 37 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0096-140X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-2337(1999)25:1<1::aid-ab1>3.0.co;2-k

✦ Synopsis

Data, based on a longitudinal study of over 1500 young women and 700 young men followed over a four year period, which describe the use of alcohol during sexual assaults, are reported.

Women reported on their experiences as victims of various forms of sexual coercion, including attempted and completed rape. Similarly, men reported on their experiences as perpetrators of sexual coercion. For each instance, respondents were asked a series of questions about who was drinking, only the man, only the woman, or both, and how intoxicated each was. Comparable questions were asked about consensual sexual experiences. Results indicate that alcohol presence was more frequent in reports of college victimization than adolescent victimization (60%), but that at each age, alcohol use was more likely to be reported in instances of coerced sex than in instances of consensual sex. Furthermore, assaults were more likely when both were drinking than when only one party was drinking. However, when only one person was drinking, it was typically the man, as reported by both victims and perpetrators. Results also indicate that those with a more extensive history of alcohol use were more likely to be involved in sexually coercive experiences than those without such a history. For both victims and perpetrators extent of alcohol use was a significant predictor of their experiences. For perpetrators, alcohol use was one of several anti-social, delinquent type behaviors predictive of sexual assault. For victims, alcohol use was correlated with other indices of nonconformity, in particular low religiousity and acceptance of casual sex.