How does alcohol contribute to sexual assault?
Sexual assault can take place in a number of different instances and can happen to many different people. Sexual assault however, is far more likely to take place when alcohol abuse is involved. Alcohol reduces a person’s inhibitions, making things such as sexual assault seem acceptable. Even those who normally would not force sex on a woman or man may do so when under the influence. When this happens, treatment for alcoholism is often sought out by the perpetrator, typically due to guilt and remorse.
This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium of the 2001 RSA Meeting in Montreal, Canada. The chair was Antonia Abbey and the organizers were Tina Zawacki and Philip O. Buck. There were four presentations and a discussant. The first presentation was made by Maria Testa whose interviews with sexual assault victims suggest that there may be differences in the characteristics of sexual assaults in which both the victim and perpetrator were using substances as compared to when only the perpetrator was using substances. The second presentation was made by Tina Zawacki whose research found that perpetrators of sexual assaults that involved alcohol were in most ways similar to perpetrators of sexual assaults that did not involve alcohol, although they differed on impulsivity and several alcohol measures. The third presentation was made by Kathleen Parks who described how alcohol consumption affected women’s responses to a male confederate’s behavior in a simulated bar setting. The f
