Incapacitated Rape
JOURNAL OF AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH, VOL. 58, NO. 5
Forcible, Drug-Facilitated, and Incapacitated
Rape and Sexual Assault Among Undergraduate
Women
Steven Lawyer, PhD; Heidi Resnick, PhD; Von Bakanic, PhD; Tracy Burkett, PhD;
Dean Kilpatrick, PhD
victim’s ability to fend off an attack.7 However, researchers typically have not distinguished between sexual assaults that occur when the victim is unable to consent to sexual contact or fend off an attack because she is intoxicated after consuming drugs or alcohol either voluntarily or after ingesting
“date rape” drugs (eg, gamma-hydroxybutyrate [GHB]).8,9
Several studies suggest that the frequency of sexual assaults that occur when the victim is unable to consent due to intoxication may be quite high and deserving of special attention. In their oft-cited study, Koss et al3 found that approximately equal percentages of college-student respondents reported forced sex and unwanted sex “because the man gave you alcohol or drugs” (9% and 8%, respectively).
More recently, Kilpatrick et al1 found that equal percentages of college women reported a history of forcible and drugrelated rape (6.4%). Tyler et al10 examined different tactics that sexual assault assailants use to perpetrate sexual assaults and found that, among the undergraduate sample of women, twice as many women reported that assaults occurred after someone else got her “drunk/stoned” (23.5%) than reported assaults after being held down (11.2%).
Interestingly, Tyler et al10 found that victim voluntary alcohol consumption was associated with risk for incapacitated sexual assault, but was unrelated to forcible sexual assault or to unwanted sexual acts after verbal coercion, reiterating a potential link between victim alcohol consumption and risk for sexual assault, perhaps due to impairment. Two more recent studies based on large representative samples of college students found the prevalence of sexual assaults that occur when the
Forcible, Drug-Facilitated, and Incapacitated
Rape and Sexual Assault Among Undergraduate
Women
Steven Lawyer, PhD; Heidi Resnick, PhD; Von Bakanic, PhD; Tracy Burkett, PhD;
Dean Kilpatrick, PhD
victim’s ability to fend off an attack.7 However, researchers typically have not distinguished between sexual assaults that occur when the victim is unable to consent to sexual contact or fend off an attack because she is intoxicated after consuming drugs or alcohol either voluntarily or after ingesting
“date rape” drugs (eg, gamma-hydroxybutyrate [GHB]).8,9
Several studies suggest that the frequency of sexual assaults that occur when the victim is unable to consent due to intoxication may be quite high and deserving of special attention. In their oft-cited study, Koss et al3 found that approximately equal percentages of college-student respondents reported forced sex and unwanted sex “because the man gave you alcohol or drugs” (9% and 8%, respectively).
More recently, Kilpatrick et al1 found that equal percentages of college women reported a history of forcible and drugrelated rape (6.4%). Tyler et al10 examined different tactics that sexual assault assailants use to perpetrate sexual assaults and found that, among the undergraduate sample of women, twice as many women reported that assaults occurred after someone else got her “drunk/stoned” (23.5%) than reported assaults after being held down (11.2%).
Interestingly, Tyler et al10 found that victim voluntary alcohol consumption was associated with risk for incapacitated sexual assault, but was unrelated to forcible sexual assault or to unwanted sexual acts after verbal coercion, reiterating a potential link between victim alcohol consumption and risk for sexual assault, perhaps due to impairment. Two more recent studies based on large representative samples of college students found the prevalence of sexual assaults that occur when the