I haven't done a journal club video in quite some time, and given the recent discussion
in our community, I'm going to offer it, not to make a point about alcohol and rape.
I really just wanted to introduce the language of academic discourse on the topic of sexual
violence prevention.
This paper focuses exclusively on ways that counseling and education on binge drinking
among women in a college setting can address a strong link between repeated binge drinking
behaviors and the risk of sexual victimization.
Please note!
The views expressed, whether I agree with them or not, are not my own.
This is a paper published in 2009 in "Substance Use and Misuse", the authors are Drs.
Maria Testa and Jennifer Livingston, both of them research scientists at the University
at Buffalo in New York State.
I encourage you to read the full text (link in the description) and offer your comments
below.
Here are a few select excerpts from that paper:
Alcohol consumption has long been considered as increasing vulnerability to sexual victimization,
with numerous studies documenting a positive association between women's alcohol use and
their experiences of sexual victimization, at both the global and the event level.
Research shows that sexually victimized women tend to drink more than women without a history
of victimization.
Moreover, a substantial proportion of sexual assaults occur when the victim has been drinking
and incidents of victimization are disproportionately likely to occur on drinking days as opposed
to nondrinking days.
These findings raise the intriguing question: Can the incidence of sexual victimization
be reduced by reducing women's drinking?
Because alcohol use is amenable to change, prevention efforts that focus on reducing
women's drinking may be a promising means of reducing sexual victimization.
We do not mean to suggest that women who consume alcohol are responsible for their own victimization.
Few would dispute that it is the perpetrator, nearly always male, who is responsible for
sexual victimization and that it is imperative that prevention efforts target male perpetration.
Nonetheless, without in any way blaming the victim, it is also responsible to help women
to reduce their risk of sexual victimization by altering the behaviors that increase their
vulnerability.
....
Sexual victimization is a heterogeneous phenomenon that may encompass verbally coerced intercourse
from an intimate, incapacitated rape at a fraternity party, or violent rape by an acquaintance
or a date.
The tactics used in these experiences are different—verbal, substances, force—as
are the contexts and the perpetrators.
It is plausible that factors that increase vulnerability to one type of experience do
not necessarily increase vulnerability to another type.
For example, two studies of college students found that women's drinking was associated
with experiencing alcohol consumption-related sexual victimization, as would be expected,
but not with experiencing sexual victimization resulting from force or verbal coercion.
....
As best as we can determine from these studies, it appears that most incidents of incapacitated
rape follow voluntary consumption of large amounts of alcohol as opposed to deliberate
intoxication of the woman by a perpetrator.
“Date rape drugs” appear to play a role in only a very small proportion of incidents
of incapacitated rape.
Thus, efforts to prevent sexual assault should focus on reducing women's voluntary heavy
consumption of alcohol.
....
Rape prevention efforts targeting women's behavior have been criticized as unfairly
requiring women as potential victims to alter their behavior and restrict their freedom
in exchange for their safety.
Although the goal of the approach we advocate is to alter women's behavior, it seems difficult
to argue that preventing women from drinking to the point of incapacitation restricts their
freedom or involves a loss.
On the contrary, it offers many additional benefits.
Advocating drinking reduction for women as a way of reducing their vulnerability to rape
implies neither that women are to blame for their own victimization nor that prevention
directed toward male perpetrators is unnecessary.
College drinking reduction programs have most commonly been directed toward women and men,
and this two-pronged approach, targeting both victim and perpetrator drinking, may prove
especially effective in reducing sexual victimization.
I look forward to your comments.
Thanks for watching.