NCJ Number
142081
Date Published
1990
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the effect of victim and assailant alcohol consumption on judgments related to acquaintance rape using a sample of 64 men and 68 women who were at least 21 years of age.
Abstract
Subjects read a 500-word story depicting social interaction between a heterosexual couple that resulted in acquaintance rape. The man picked up the woman and took her to dinner and a party. After he took her home, he initiated sex play but the woman resisted when the man escalated the sexual activity. When verbal coercion did not make the woman have sexual intercourse, the man physically forced her. The independent study variable consisted of changing who in the story consumed alcohol over the course of the date (assailant, victim, both, or neither). It was found that rape attitudes affected judgments and that acquaintance rape was not judged as severely when both members of the dating couple consumed alcohol as when only the woman drank. The assailant was judged most likable and romantic when both had been drinking, and victim reactions after the rape were least negative if both had been drinking. While the woman's alcohol consumption did not affect perceptions of her traits, sexual or otherwise, the assailant's alcohol consumption affected judgments of both his and the victim's behavior and traits. 17 references, 6 tables, and 5 figures