Alcohol and Men’s Sexual Assault Perpetration Against Women: How Is Our Understanding Hampered by Limitations in Existing Experimental Analogues?

Abstract

Answers to questions about alcohol’s causal role in sexual aggression require experiments that randomly assign people to drink conditions and evaluate their likelihood of engaging in sexually aggressive behavior after consuming an alcoholic beverage as compared to a nonalcoholic beverage. These studies require well-validated experimental analogues of sexually aggressive behavior. The premise of this chapter is that additional analogues need to be developed in order to fully understand the etiology of sexual violence and develop evidence-based policy, prevention, and treatment initiatives. This chapter begins with assumptions and definitions and then briefly reviews alcohol administration and sexual assault etiology research for readers not familiar with this literature. The heart of the chapter is a discussion of sexual aggression experimental analogues: What are the essential elements of sexual aggression that need to be included in analogues? What are the strengths and limitations of existing analogues? Is the same analogue likely to be equally effective at identifying perpetrators with different motives, backgrounds, and situational preferences? How can virtual reality and confederate paradigms advance knowledge? I want to encourage new researchers to join this field and contribute to our understanding of alcohol's role in sexual aggression.