Chapter 7 - Women’s Alcohol Use and Risk of Sexual Victimization: Implications for Prevention

Abstract

Women’s heavy episodic drinking (HED) is a potent risk factor for sexual victimization, particularly for incapacitated rape and alcohol-related sexual assault. The relationship is strongest among college students and other young adult samples in which rates of HED are elevated. Owing to the strong prospective and acute associations between women’s HED and sexual assault risk, it is critical that prevention efforts acknowledge and address the important role of alcohol. For example, individual-focused interventions that reduce women’s HED may be an efficacious way of reducing risk of alcohol-related sexual assault. Interventions may also seek to make alcohol consumption safer, for example, through enlisting and empowering friends and bystanders to intervene when there is the potential for assault. Alternatively, given the positive association between drinking environment and community sexual assault rates, environmental interventions that restrict alcohol availability or otherwise reduce heavy drinking at the community level may also be an efficacious way of preventing sexual assault. Addressing women’s drinking in no way implies that women are to blame for their victimization; that responsibility lies solely with the perpetrator. However, if our goal is to prevent sexual victimization and its potentially devastating consequences, it is critical that we acknowledge and address heavy drinking as a major and modifiable risk factor.