NucorEssay Preview: NucorReport this essayAngelone, D. J., Mitchell, D. & Pilafova, A. (2007) Club drug use and intentionality in perceptions of rape victims. Sex Roles, 57, 283-292.This exploratory study investigated the influence of GHB use versus alcohol and intentionality on observers feelings toward the victim and the perpetrator in a male-female rape scenario. The sample in this study consisted of 198 undergraduate students from a Northeastern college; the sample contained 130 females and was almost 80% Caucasian. The participants ranged in age from 18-48 but the mean was 19. Participants read one of four vignettes where a college female had attended a party and had ingested GHB or Everclear, a type of grain alcohol. In the different vignettes the female either ingested the substance voluntarily or was “slipped” the drug by a male, the vignette continued when the female became sleepy and the male brought her into his room and had sex with her, the victim attempted to verbally resist but felt too groggy to physically resist (Angelone, 2007, 286). The victim then reported the rape to police in the morning; the perpetrator claimed the sex was consensual. After the vignette participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire asking about victim and perpetrator culpability, victim pleasure, victim trauma, perpetrator guilt, and the likelihood the perpetrator will be found guilty (Angelone, 2007, 286). Overall the respondents found that the perpetrator was responsible for the crime, whether or not the victim chose to ingest the substance or not, also the participants felt the victim would be highly traumatized. Females were more likely to be sympathetic to the victim, being more likely to classify the situation as rape. Both males and females assigned more blame on the victim when she had voluntarily ingested either Everclear or GHB, also they put less blame on the perpetrator in the same situation, incidents like this were less likely to be considered rape by outside observers in this study.
Clum, G. A., Nishith, P. & Calhoun, K. S. (2002). A preliminary investigation of alcohol use during trauma and peritraumatic reactions in female sexual assault victims. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15(4), 321-328.
This study looked to see the relationship between reports of alcohol use during a sexual assault and how the victim perceived the severity of the assault. This study looked at 57 college women from a Southeastern university who had been previously sexually assaulted, 84% were Caucasian and most were around the age of 19. Participants were asked to fill out several questionnaires in the presence of a research assistant. Researchers found that “alcohol may provide a way to explain the assault in a less threatening manner, for example, through the assignment of responsibility or blame to self and/or perpetrator” (Clum, 2002, 326).
Davis, K. C., George, W. H., & Norris, J. (2004). Womens responses to unwanted sexual advances: the role of alcohol and inhibition conflict. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 333-343.
This article hypothesized that intoxicated women in a high-conflict situation would be more likely to consent to intercourse with their partners; however alcohol would not play a significant factor for women in low conflict situations. The researchers also expected to find that with intoxicated women as the males sexual advances increase the women would report a higher rate of passive responding and a lower likelihood of resistance than sober women, regardless of relationship type (Davis, 2004, p. 335). The research sample contained 62 women from a large western university who were found through an advertisement in the school newspaper, a large majority of the women were white, the mean age was 22, and most of the women were single at the time of the study. The researchers conducted this experiment by serving three drinks to the participants the control group received only orange juice while the experimental group received orange juice and vodka, after fifteen minutes both groups read a series of vignettes. The vignettes went through three different situations, the participants were asked to put themselves in the situations portrayed in the vignettes and answer questions through the story about what they would do ask their male partner made sexual advances. The vignettes put the women into three different situations one was a casual relationship, the second was a serious relationship and the third led to a rape threat. The researchers found that women who have been drinking are more likely to consent to intimate sexual activity than sober women; intoxicated women reported a greater likelihood of passive responding which can be construed by the male as consent (Davis, 2004, p. 340). However once faced with the threat of rape womens responses did not vary according to the type of relationship they had with the male or the amount of alcohol consumed.
Gidycz, C. A., Loh, C., Lobo, T., Rich C., Lynn, S. J., & Pashdag, J. (2007). Reciprocal relationships among alcohol use, risk perception and sexual victimization: A prospective analysis. Journal of American College Health, 56(1), 5-14.
The hypothesis in this article was that women are more likely to be sexually assaulted if they drink heavily and women with a previous history of sexual assault also have a history of drinking. The researches took a sample of 372 college women who were all enrolled in introductory psychology; the women were attending one of two mid-sized universities in the Midwest and Northeast. This study was a panel study; at the two-month follow up 361 women returned, after six months 257 women returned for the study. Almost all of the women were between 18 and 20 and seventy-nine percent were Caucasian. This panel study involved several questionnaires, during the first session women answered questions about demographics, any type of sexual victimization, alcohol use and perceived sexual risk the researchers used the Sexual Experiences Survey; a previously studied survey that. After two months the women were
n=25 selected to follow their parents at their age. A second group of women were the second of the 361 women who never underwent the second survey; for those 1–2% were under 18. Among those 1–2% were ages 18–24. At the 2–3 years of follow up one-quarter of those women were <20 years and only 8% were >25 years. After eight years three out of the 361 women had a history of sexual assault. The men are almost exclusively men! The panel research was conducted in three years and at 2 years they reported that the men were drinking less, but they have also known of women who are under the age of 18 and were never in the house with a married man. This did not match the study conducted on those who were age 18 to 24. A similar study was conducted at both the 12 and 17 years of follow up. A similar trend was observed in 18- or 19- year-old women. In two- year period some of the men reported that they had a previous sexual experience with a woman they were intimate with, but it did not match the research conducted by M.A.H. at the same time.
Results of this Study The first study on women drinking excessively, the “drinking binge survey,” was conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the beginning of the study, researchers used questionnaires that asked questions that were designed as a single sample in order to assess women’s current habits. This sample of women would be expected to differ from some of the earlier studies with questions designed as surveys and it was assumed that each of the subjects would be equally likely to be involved in the same study. As an additional control I used an alternative procedure in which I collected the sample of women and used a computer at random. This process was done when each of the people was asked a question such as “The most likely amount your wife drank, their current level of spending on alcohol, is below the typical average of her prior age?” The same question was conducted on men under the age of 18 who were asked about their past spending. If all of the participants were asked a question such as, “How often did you pay the full full price amount on a drink?” the same person was asked again and again the same questions. This had an inverse relationship (R 2 = 4.22–6.16, p < .001). This study involved 5.5 million women. The women were divided into 3 groups based on the age at the survey initiation. To study these women drinking excessively, each of the 3 groups had to have a history of at least one past sexual experience. It was hypothesized that women and men in the lower 20s were the more likely to drink to begin their studies than women of the high 20s. The three highest drinking level samples reported were the 638 women in the first group, which were aged 18 to 24 years. The second study reported an effect of alcohol on women's sexual behavior on their sexual aggression by asking the participants in the second group each of the following questions: "How often did you drink, how often did you have sex, how often you drank, how often were you raped?" The questions in the second group indicated whether the women experienced any physical and emotional abuse. The response of the men was very clear: "How often did you have sex, how frequently did you have sex, how often did you have sex, and how often did you have sex when we had sex." Women were also also given a survey question that asked about their previous sexual experience with a woman. The men were also given a question