Citation

Abbey A, Wegner R, Woerner J, Pegram SE, Pierce J. Trauma Violence Abuse 2014; 15(4): 265-282.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1524838014521031

PMID

24776459

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.

Language: en