Alcohol Increases Co-eds' Risk of Sexual Assault

70,000 cases of assault or date rape each year tied to alcohol

SATURDAY, Jan. 8, 2005 (HealthDayNews) -- Most women college students are well aware of the dangers of drinking and driving. But there's an equally threatening risk tied to alcohol consumption that may not leap to mind -- sexual assault.

Seventy thousand cases of sexual assault or date rape that occur each year on college campuses are attributable to alcohol use, a federal task force found.

That conclusion is reinforced in a recent study by scientists at the Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) at the University of Buffalo who compared the drinking patterns of college-aged women to their experiences of physical or sexual assault.

On days when women in the study sample drank heavily -- defined as five or more servings of an alcoholic beverage -- they were nine times more likely to experience sexual aggression than on days when they didn't drink at all.

And on days the women consumed fewer than five drinks, their odds of being the victim of some type of attack were still elevated.

"The odds of experiencing sexual or nonsexual aggression were three times higher on days when the women consumed one to four alcoholic drinks than on days when they did not drink at all," said lead investigator Kathleen A. Parks, a senior research scientist at RIA. "Overall, these findings suggest that college-age women have a much greater chance of being a victim of aggression or violence on the days they drink."

The research appeared in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Parks is quick to point out the study was not about blaming women -- whether they drink heavily, moderately or not at all -- for becoming the victim of a sexual assault or aggressive behavior.

"The perpetrators of violence and aggression are the ones responsible for hurting others," she said. "Obviously, women who don't ever drink can also be victimized."

Even so, Parks added, women should be aware of the role alcohol appears to play in creating settings in which victimization is more likely to occur.

"Women can't control their friends' or dates' drinking behaviors, but they can control their own," Parks explained. "When a woman drinks, she may be placing herself in a more dangerous position and, at the same time, she may be reducing her ability to avoid, escape from or counter an aggressive attack. While we are not yet certain about all of the ways that drinking and victimization are related, this presently seems to be a rather strong association."

The findings are consistent with the conclusions of an earlier study of college drinking that was commissioned by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The institute's Task Force on College Drinking showed that drinking on college campuses contributes to an estimated 1,400 student deaths, 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape each year. The results were published in the March 2002 issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.

"The harm that college students do to themselves and others as a result of excessive drinking exceeded what many would have expected," said study author Ralph W. Hingson, a professor of social behavioral sciences at Boston University's School of Public Health. "Our data clearly pointed to the need for better interventions against high-risk drinking in this population."

T.K. Logan is a researcher in the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research at the University of Kentucky. She believes all the evidence to date points to alcohol's negative effect on a woman's ability to make good choices.

"While we are not yet certain about all of the pathways that connect drinking with victimization, that much is already clear," Logan said. "Women do not make the best decisions they are capable of making when they have been drinking. This places them at greater risk of being in a situation they will not be able to control."

"Whether deciding it's fine to walk to their car alone, or accepting a ride from someone she doesn't really know well, or another decision that has an unfavorable result, alcohol can contribute to a woman placing herself in harm's way," she added.

More information

To learn more about alcohol consumption among college students, visit the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

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