Is Alcohol Really To Blame For Rape By David Ludor Summary

In addition to deaths, college drinking is linked to 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault or rape. Furthermore,

Studies have shown that the amount of drinking that goes on in colleges is higher than anywhere else and that alcohol is the underlying cause in 50% of date rape cases. There is a strong negative correlation between low GPA scores and the amount of alcohol consumption in college students. The drinking age has been raised in many states in an effort to curtail the number of car accidents; this movement has reduced the number of car accidents (Barlow and Durand, 2006).

Sexual assault and rape are serious social and public health issues in the United States and throughout the rest of the world. In particular sexual assault on college campus are prevalent at an alarming rate and leaves serious effects on the victims. This essay will focus on statistics and the prevalence and effects amongst college students, through examining a number of reasons why women fail to report sexual assault and rape. This essay will also cover sexual assault prevention and things that can be done to mitigate the risk of becoming a victim to such matter.

Assault in all forms is dangerous to both men and women. Sexual assault on college campuses is fairly common today, and occurs in a number of ways. Young women are most often the main victims of assault on college campuses. This is becoming a serious issue in American society today because either some of these cases go unreported or these young women are too scared to report them or are too embarrassed to report it because the men causing these might be their friends or someone they know. Many young women face this kind of problem, especially when in college. It is mostly at college parties where girls are at risk of having drinks that have been “roofied.” Roofied drinks are drinks that have been spiked with drugs and are most often used by men against women to make them sleepy or cause them to black out. These men are able to take advantage of these vulnerable women. It is difficult to tell if a drink is roofied as the color, taste and odor of the drink remains the same. These actions also put out a bad image of the “good” men and the men that actually care about a women’s safety and wellbeing. As a result, women will naturally form opinions based on experiences they have and will tend to be more cautious.

While there is no documented first case of sexual assault at Boston University, it is clear that it was becoming a national problem by the 1970’s. As early as 1957 Eugene Kanin produced a study prompted by male aggression on university campus’s. In the study Kanin analyzed cases of one hundred and sixty two girls that felt they had been sexually abused on campus. Scholarly literature presented sexual assault on college campus’s by 1957 (Kamentz). In the 1960’s the violent crime rate skyrocketed across America. Women were the main recipients of the misconduct. It is likely that out of the thousands of students and women that attended BU at this time there were incidences of sexual assault. This became apparent nationally in 1972 when the government was called upon to change the law enforcement community (Sacco).

The overconsumption of alcohol is a recipe for disaster concerning sexual assault. Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel issued directives concurrent with the DoD Sexual Assault Prevention Strategy for 2014-2016 that had a requirement in that alcohol policies will be reviewed and revised where necessary and address risk alcohol poses to others, including risks of alcohol being used as a weapon against victims. This indicates to me that alcohol poses a serious threat to a healthy stable environment that is free from sexual assault and harassment.

So, let’s get started. Because we are in college, most of us probably spend some weekends out at the bars, parties or other events where alcohol is presented. Around 89,000 cases of rape are reported annually and of those cases 7.2% occurs at parties or other events, according to statistic brain. To be put that in a better Boone Pickens has 56,790 seats (O’ Colly). So, that’s almost 1.5 stadiums filled with people that have been sexually assaulted at a parties. Just think about that for a moment, we ourselves either know people or are the people who go out and have too much to drink sometimes, but is anybody asking to be belittled or taken advantage of? Being at social events make people less aware, especially when they are drinking, so their guard is being put down, which is how they may be taken advantage of. Not only does sexual assault occur out at public events, but it also occurs in people’s private time as well. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who may just experienced sexual assault. Who did it to you? Someone you’ve never met? Well, guess what if I told you it was your best friend, a relative, or your boyfriend/girlfriend. According to the National Institute of Justice, approximately 90% of sexual assaults reported are committed by someone that they know ( ). You probably never thought of that, just as most victims didn’t. Because most victims do experience this from someone they know, an estimated 63% of sexual assaults are never reported, according to NSRVC( ).

In her essay,” ‘Hooking Up’: What Educators Need to Know”, Kathleen A. Bogle illustrates that college students are having more casual sex aka ”Hooking Up” (248). Also Educators need be able to tell the different of casual sex and sexual assault. Bogle illustrates hooking up is a more common practice because the shift of social and dating. She explains that hooking up is the new dating system for college students to find “sexual and romantic partners” (249). According to Bogle hooking up is the thing to do for today’s generation even if it has been a part of social culture since the 1960s. Because so many students are doing it in today’s generation Bogle believes hook up culture has changed the way we react to subjects such as sexual assault. “Sexual assault on the college campus stems from the ambiguity of the ’unable to consent’ provision of state laws” (Bogle 250). “Hooking Up” usually occurs at parties towards the in the night when students are under the influence of alcohol. In Bogle’s view the shift of dating practices to hooking up have created more problems in the prevention of rape. She goes to explain that because of the rise in drunken hookups sexual assault is no longer limited to date rape situations. Bogle states that students also have a hard time of distinguishing a sexual encounter and rape due to victim-blaming. Bogle stresses that though college administrators can’t stop the fact that students are going to hook up they should educate students more on the

In the article, high sexual prime of the hundreds youth on campus together with alcohol and other drugs are blamed for these heinous acts and it has thus become an “accepted” cultural norm. Sexual assault, which the article defines as a forceful compellation of someone to engage in unwanted sexual activities with another, and it can range from kissing to penetration, is on the rampant increase and hence raising nationwide concerns. These concerns and opinions, however, divide the nation along political, gender, civic, and cultural lines. Meanwhile no exact factors have been linked to the rising cases of sexual assault on campus even though alcohol, male college sexuality and age have proven to be a factor. On this, divisive positions also emerge but no one seems to answer the question why it is so frequent and rampant in nearly all college campuses.

In Daniel Luzer’s article “Is Alchohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” publish in Pacific Standard, on the 18th of November in 2013, the answer to the question is shared. In several cases of sexual assault drinking is present. Even though, drinking has continuously been done by numerous college students over the years the number of assaults are continuing to rise. Why is this happening so often? According to Luzer, things have changed from the past, but not the amount of drinking being done by students. Environments in which boys and girls have now has changed drastically compared to the past. Rules have changed, dorms, going to church, the way students dress, and other factors have all changed. Therefore,

In Daniel Luzer’s article titled “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” published on November 18th, 2013 by Pacific Standard, the reality about sexual assault is shared. While in college, many teens are reporting more sexual assault cases on campus, but is alcohol really to blame? Due to the consumption of alcohol, behavior changes occur for both men and women. Many believe girls are at fault for putting themselves in the position to be assaulted because of their decision to drink. On the other hand, people also blame the boys for their drunken violence towards girls while intoxicated. Alcohol is not the only misdemeanor in this case. Throughout history, changes are occurring in teens’ social

In Daniel Luzer’s article “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” published on November 18, 2013 in Pacific Standard, the truth about the cause of increasing sexual assault is discussed. From the constant disagreement about how many women are actually a victim of rape while in college, the alleged reasoning for these numbers is due to alcohol consumption. Throughout the text, Luzer examines different articles about alcohol consumption relating directly to cases of rape. Different viewpoints are discussed like tell women not to drink during college and warn women about the dangers of drinking. Both of these actions have been taken, and the numbers in the Washington region are still increasing. More

Rape is defined by the NCVS as, “forced sexual intercourse including both psychological coercion as well as physical force. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, anal, or oral penetration by the offender(s)… Includes attempted rapes… verbal threats of rape.” Fisher’s article focuses on the fact that many assaults occur on a campus because they hold “large concentrations of young women” which results in a “greater risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women in the general population or in a comparable age group.” The study conducted by Fisher et al. found that there are four main factors that

There is a definite correlation between alcohol and sexual assault. A sexual assault can be defined as a sexual act occurring without verbal consent, or when force is used in a sexual encounter against the other person's will. Of all the men who admit to committing sexual assault, 55% report being under the influence of alcohol at the time, with 26% of the men being drunk (Stanford University, 1999). Of all the women who report being sexually assaulted, 53% of them report being under the influence of alcohol, with 21% of these women being drunk (Stanford University, 1999). These facts suggest that alcohol is a major factor in sexual assaults. Crimes such as these could be greatly reduced if

In the United States rape completely toxic and it’s a dangerous myth. On college campuses where drinking is prevalent, most victims don’t report their assault to the police because of the fear of being blamed for the incident. “A recent National Crime Victimization report showed that only 55% of sexual assaults reported in their survey were reported to the police” (Hayes, Abbott, Cook 2016). Hayes goes on to explain that rape myths are defined as “attitudes and false belief held