Alcohol and Sexual Assault

Alcohol Research & Health, Wntr, 2001 by Antonia Abbey, Tina Zawacki, Philip O. Buck, Monique Clinton, Pam Mcauslan

Methods for Investigating Alcohol's Role in Sexual Assault

Researchers have used two main approaches to examine alcohol's role in sexual assault: (1) surveys of victims and perpetrators of sexual assault and (2) laboratory studies that examine alcohol's effects on human behavior.

Each approach has its strengths and limitations.

Sexual assault is a particularly private, personal crime, and it is impossible for researchers to observe or fully simulate sexual assault. Thus, interviews with victims and perpetrators serve as the primary source of information regarding the circumstances under which the sexual assault occurred. Even the bestconstructed surveys, however, have some limitations. When studies are conducted years after the sexual assault occurred, a person's recall may be inaccurate, especially when the person was intoxicated at the time of the assault. Moreover, some participants may provide a somewhat distorted account of the events in order to avoid personal embarrassment. Finally, the surveys conducted to date vary in quality (e.g., sample size and validity of measures). This article focuses on only the findings of surveys that used large, representative samples and measures with established reliability and validity.

Laboratory studies are investigations in which participants consume either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic beverage before their sexual or aggressive behavior is measured. The primary strength of this methodology is that it allows researchers to establish cause and effect for a certain behavior, because the participants are randomly assigned to the alcohol or nonalcohol condition. The major disadvantage of these studies is that for obvious ethical reasons, researchers cannot study directly the variable of interest (i.e., sexual assault). Instead, they must use proxy measures that may not accurately represent sexual assault experiences. For example, some investigators have used the participants' responses to pornography as a proxy for sexual assault. Other researchers have asked participants to read and respond to stories about sexual assault. Although it is important to understand how people react to sexual assault victims and perpetrators, responses to a story may not reflect how people would behave if actua lly in a sexual assault situation.

In summary, surveys of victims and perpetrators cannot unequivocally demonstrate a cause-effect relationship between alcohol consumption and sexual assault, whereas laboratory studies cannot measure actual responses to sexual assault. Consequently, researchers must conduct both types of studies. Similar results obtained with both approaches increase confidence in the studies' conclusions. The explanations of alcohol's role in sexual assault reviewed in the following section have been examined in studies using such complementary methodologies. Much more research on this topic is needed, however, and specific suggestions for future research are presented at the end of the article.

PATHWAYS THROUGH WHICH ALCOHOL CONTRIBUTES TO SEXUAL ASSAULT