Rape and Binge Drinking
Going to school in New Orleans may be a little tough due to the huge amounts of alcohol that students are tempted with on a daily basis. Though going out and having a good time is perfectly normal and exciting, there are dangers if one takes it too far.
I was searching the web and found a site that told of statistics found by the Harvard College Alcohol Study. These facts, gathered from a total of 119 colleges and universities around the country, were all about women in college being raped while they were under the influence of alcohol. The study found that alcohol is present in the majority of rapes of college women.
In a period of a mere 7 months, 1 in 20 women in college, or 4.7%, reported being raped since the beginning of the school year. Three-quarters, or 72%, of these rapes occurred when the victims were beyond the point of reason because they were so extremely intoxicated; they could not say yes or no to their agressor.
It was also found that women who attend colleges where students have a medium or high tendency to binge drink have over a 1.5-fold greater chance of being a victim to rape in this situation compared to students who attend colleges where binge drinking rates are very low.
The site stated that binge drinking was considered to be the most prevalent health issue among students at college campuses, resulting in lower grades and physical and sexual violence. There were a few significant risk factors for rape victims included which scared me a little, seeing as I comply with almost all of them- women under the age of 21, caucasian, residents of sorority houses, and those women who were drug users and drinkers while in high school.
While these factors scared me a little, the scariest fact that I found from this study and this website was that more women are raped while under the influence of alcohol than any other drug.
All of these statistics have really hit home with me. Now I am reminded of how careful I have to be when I go out and drink at night because of how dangerous things can get.
Oops...I forgot to include the link to the site where I found my information on the rape and binge drinking post...so here it is.http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/college/a/blcas040214.htm
posted by Anonymous at
5:21 PM
3 Comments:
Here's a link to the Harvard study site:
The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS) is an ongoing survey of over 14,000 students at 120 four-year colleges in 40 states
By
John Topoleski, at 5:44 AM
This is a link to the press release from the Harvard site; there is also a link on this page to the original article
By
John Topoleski, at 5:51 AM
What I found interesting was the definition used for rape, which included 1) sex against your wishes, 2) sex because you were threatened ("either say yes or I'll harm you", 3) sex while so intoxicated that you were unable to consent.
The third definition is probably what leads to the number being much larger than I would have thought. Certainly there are false claims of rape. I'd be curious to know how frequently this occurs.
By
John Topoleski, at 10:39 AM
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