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Review
. 2014 Oct;15(4):265-82.
doi: 10.1177/1524838014521031. Epub 2014 Apr 27.

Review of survey and experimental research that examines the relationship between alcohol consumption and men's sexual aggression perpetration

Antonia Abbey  1 , Rhiana Wegner  2 , Jacqueline Woerner  2 , Sheri E Pegram  2 , Jennifer Pierce  2
Affiliations
Review

Review of survey and experimental research that examines the relationship between alcohol consumption and men's sexual aggression perpetration

Antonia Abbey et al. Trauma Violence Abuse. 2014 Oct.

Abstract

This article systematically reviews empirical studies that examine associations between alcohol consumption and men's sexual aggression with the goal of identifying major findings; gaps in current knowledge; and directions for future research, practice, and policy. We identified 25 cross-sectional surveys, 6 prospective studies, and 12 alcohol administration experiments published between 1993 and August 2013 with male college students and young adult (nonincarcerated) samples. Many cross-sectional surveys have demonstrated that distal and proximal measures of men's alcohol consumption are positively associated with sexual assault perpetration, although very few of these studies evaluated how alcohol interacts with other risk and protective factors to exacerbate or inhibit sexual aggression. There are surprisingly few surveys that examine alcohol's effects at the event level and over short-time intervals to identify how changes in alcohol consumption are associated with changes in perpetration status. Alcohol administration studies suggest some important mechanisms that warrant additional investigation.

Keywords: alcohol; perpetration; research methods; sexual aggression; sexual assault.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Comment in

References

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    1. Abbey A. Alcohol and dating risk factors for sexual assault: Double standards are still alive and well entrenched. Psychology of Women Quarterly. 2011a;35:362–368.
    1. Abbey A. Alcohol's role in sexual violence perpetration: Theoretical explanations, existing evidence, and directions for future research. Drug and Alcohol Review. 2011b;30:481–489. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abbey A, Clinton-Sherrod AM, McAuslan P, Zawacki T, Buck PO. The relationship between the quantity of alcohol consumed and the severity of sexual assaults committed by college men. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2003;18:813–833. - PMC - PubMed

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