Is alcohol really to blame 1

Is alcohol really to blame for the prevalence of sexual assaults on college campuses?

Rodes Jarman

Professor Fielding

WRTC 103

March 22, 2018

James Madison University

Is alcohol really to blame 2

Abstract

This line of inquiry essay examines if alcohol really is to blame for the prevalence of sexual

assaults on college campuses. I chose this research question because sexual assault is an issue

that I deeply care about and that effects everyone at some point in their life. I think alcohol has

been used as an excuse in sexual assault incidents for far too long and that it is time for people

to change their behavior. This issue is significant for everyone but it is especially important to

my peers because it takes place on college campuses so often.

Keywords: Alcohol, Sexual assault, college campuses, campus assault

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Introduction

Sexual assault is an extremely topical issue right now and college campuses are a

hotspot for attacks because of the consistent party culture. With the recent boost in sexual

assault victims coming forward and exposing their attackers, this topic has never been more

relevant. The solution for reducing campus assault lies in teaching and practicing more

responsible behavior at parties, not blaming the alcohol for what people are doing. Heavy

drinking has been a consistent practice at colleges for decades, yet the high numbers of sexual

assault are a recent statistic. This is a significant issue for everyone, especially those who are

current college students. Drinking isn’t anything new, how freely people interact and socialize

is.

The first source I looked into was an article by Bonnie Fisher in 2014 titled “There Is

a Serious Problem with Sexual Assault on College Campuses”. The purpose of the article is to

identify who the victims of campus assault typically are with the intended audience being

students and researchers of the topic. The article presents many different statistics from a

study on sexual assault on college campus, including statistics on alcohols involvement, race of

victims, age of victims, and other risk factors.

I chose this source because it is recent and gives a lot of statistics about the victims

of sexual assault on college campuses. For example, women have a higher probability of being

sexually assaulted at college than compared to before entering college. I learned that a victim is

far more likely to be assaulted by someone they know or trust than someone they have never

met before. This source will be valuable to me as a researcher because of the extensive
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statistics that it provides which help identify the typical victims. However, a weakness that this

source has is that the article gives little information on the attacker which makes it seem as

though alcohol consumption is to blame when it’s truly a behavior problem. Overall Fisher’s

article gives great information because of strong statistics that were found through the study

on campus assault victims.

The second source I explored during my research was Eliana Dockterman’s article

“’'Party Culture' No Longer Excuses Rape on College Campuses” (2016). Her purpose was to

expose how party culture is falsely used as an excuse for attackers, especially in the legal

system to achieve lesser or no sentences for the attacker. As a piece in TIME Magazine, the

intended audience is for anyone interested in the topic. The article discusses how Brock Turner

blamed party culture for him raping another student at Stanford. It expands on this by

demanding that attackers can’t be excused from their behavior no matter how alcohol was

involved in the incident. The article continues by describing some of the public outcry to the

legal decisions that have protected attackers in the past, concluding with how students are

being proactive at their universities and taking charge on the issue themselves.

I chose this article because it strongly emphasizes that alcohol is not to blame for the

high number of sexual assaults on college campuses, and that people’s behavior is. I learned

that forced sex with someone the victim knows wasn’t labeled as rape until the 1980’s which

created a legal system that supported the attackers. This source is valuable to me because it

absolutely supports my research question. Although this article takes on different angles of

alcohols role in sexual assaults on college campuses compared to the first source, they both
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find common ground on certain aspects of the topic. Dockterman writes, “’We were both

drunk,’ she wrote” (Para 3), quoting the young woman describing the night that Brock Turner

raped her at Stanford University. This agrees with the first source by showing both victim and

attacker are typically incapacitated when campus assaults occur. Dockterman continues, “A

landmark study found that 1 in 4 college women said they'd been sexually assaulted” (Para 4),

showing the severity of the issue on campuses. Both the first and second source agree that

between 16-25% of women have been assaulted while enrolled as a college student. The author

addresses the flaws of our legal system, “Turner’s defense was to downplay his assault as a

drunken mistake” (Para 2), showing the typical defensive move to use alcohol as an excuse in

court. Both articles discuss impairment due to alcohol for those involved in assaults. However,

the first source emphasizes how alcohol effects the victim, whereas the second source looks

more at how the attacker uses impairment as an excuse for their actions. I found the second

source to be quite strong for my argument with its only weakness being that it could elaborate

more on cases of alcohol being used as an excuse for sexual assault in legal situations. However,

it was an article in TIME magazine requiring it to be concise which is why I still think it is an

excellent source despite being a short read.

The last source that I examined for my research was an article written by Daniel

Luzer in 2016 titled “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College

Campuses”. The purpose of the article was to question whether alcohol is the reason for high

sexual assault numbers on college campuses, with the intended audience being anyone looking

for a new viewpoint or more information on the topic. Luzer compares heavy drinking and
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human interaction in social situations now versus decades ago. He argues that change in human

behavior socially is the reason for the rise of campus assaults, not alcohol. His reasoning behind

this is that drinking has been a consistent practice at colleges for decades, and that people

socialize far more freely without restrictions now resulting in more assaults.

I chose this source because it perfectly fit my research question. I learned that around

40% of college students are heavy drinkers, which was far higher than I previously thought. This

source is valuable to me as a researcher because it discusses all aspects of my research

question. When comparing this source to my first two sources, I found many agreements and

disagreements. Luzer writes, “One in 50 women are made the victims of rape while in college”

(Para 3), providing a statistic on victims being sexually touched without their consent,

something that the first article does extensively. He continues by stating “that the numbers (of

campus assaults) are climbing is one fact that isn't up for debate” (Para 5), showing that the

severity of the issue is something that can’t be ignored. Both the first and third sources agree

that assaults are on the rise, entailing that this issue is more pressing than ever and needs to be

addressed more seriously. Luzer points out that “Telling women to avoid getting drunk as a way

to avoid sexual assault implies that rape is somehow their fault” (Para 11), which directly

connects to the second source’s argument. Each article addresses that when alcohol is used as

an excuse for bad behavior, it falsely becomes the victims fault for the assault. He also

mentions that “in terms of stopping sexual violence, let’s start with teaching people not to rape

and go from there” (Para 8), breaking down the issue to the ideological problem of the attacker.

Behavioral problems are discussed in both the second and third sources as the real reason for
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so many campus assaults. They point out that people need to learn how to interact properly in

a party setting, instead of using the excuse of alcohol. The author maintains a realistic

viewpoint, stating “but just telling people, male or female, not to drink so much probably isn't

going to do very much because college students like to get drunk” (Para 14). Both articles

address party culture being a staple of college and that it is something that won’t change

anytime soon. However, each source calls for more responsibility by those involved in these

situations and those in the legal system who deal with these cases. Luzer’s article clearly

identifies the problem with many examples, but it offers no clear solution as to how we go

about changing behavior on campuses. Despite this weakness, it is a perfect source for my

research question.

Conclusion

During my search for articles, I learned the difficulty of locating multiple current sources

that fit my research question topic well. Each source I chose contributed to my viewpoint on

the issue, especially the second and third articles because of how convincing and strong their

arguments are. After researching, my current position on the subject is that alcohol is not

completely to blame but still takes a large role in the situation of sexual assaults on college

campuses. This differs from my original opinion on the project because I started my research

thinking alcohol isn’t to blame at all for the high number of campus assaults. My planned

position for the web page is that alcohol is not to blame for campus assaults. Overall, I think my

research has been fairly successful for how limited sources that connect to my research

question there are.

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References

Dockterman, E. (2016). 'Party Culture' No Longer Excuses Rape on College

Campuses. Time.Com, 1

Fisher, B. S., Krebs, C. P., Warner, T. D., Lindquist, C. H., & Martin, S. L. (2014). There Is a

SeriousProblem with Sexual Assault on College Campuses. In A. Hiber (Ed.), Opposing

Viewpoints. Sexual Violence. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press

Luzer, D. (2016). Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College

Campuses? In J. Lasky (Ed.), Opposing Viewpoints. Sexual Assault on Campus. Farmington Hills,

MI: Greenhaven Press.