Alcohol and Sexual Assault

Definitions and Prevalence Information

Most researchers define sexual assault as any type of forced sexual activity obtained against the victim's wishes or when the victim is unable to give consent. Thus, it includes acts of physically forced vaginal, oral, or anal penetration that constitute rape. Sexual assault also includes physically forced sexual touching and the use of verbally coercive tactics that may not conform to legal definitions of criminal sexual contact but have negative consequences for victims. In most jurisdictions, sex with someone unable to consent because of permanent or short-term mental incapacitation constitutes rape. Although the media has dramatized cases in which potent drugs such as flunitrazepam (i.e., Rohypnol) have been given to victims without their knowledge, alcohol is the most commonly used date-rape drug.

Alarmingly high rates of adolescent and adult sexual assault have been documented in surveys that have been conducted in the United States since the 1980s. Sexual assault prevalence has been less well documented in most other countries; however, available data suggest that rates are high throughout the world. The United Nations has documented the frequent use of rape as a tool of war. Crime statistics are notorious for underestimating rates of sexual assault because only a small proportion are reported to the authorities. Also, most people still think of sexual assault as an attack by a stranger; thus, when sexual assault occurs within the context of an ongoing relationship, people are not always sure how they should label it. Consequently, researchers prefer to ask questions that describe sexually assaultive experiences in lay language without using terminology that labels the behavior. Commonly used questions ask about situations in which someone used physical force or verbal pressure or situations in which the person was so drunk or high he or she did not know what was happening. Using these definitions, approximately one in five American women are likely to be victims of physically forced penetrative sex and another third will be the victim of some type of forced sexual contact. Men are also victims of sexual assault, but at much lower rates. In a large representative study of rape victimization sponsored by the Department of Justice, more than 80 percent of male victims were raped by a man. Sexual orientation is seldom assessed in these surveys; thus, there is limited data about the victimization of gays and lesbians.

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