STRATEGIES TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND EACH OTHER
There are few issues on college campuses that more sharply alarm students than acquaintance rape. At many schools, a climate of fear is emerging. Women and men are urged to be more cautious.
Increasingly, students are treating each other with suspicion. Schools everywhere are considering establishing new rules of sexual conduct.
Despite this widespread concern about sexual assault, the role of alcohol is still sometimes overlooked in discussions about acquaintance rape. Most people who commit this crime have been drinking, usually heavily. And, although it's never okay to blame the victim, often the victim has been drinking, too.
This pamphlet tells you about the risks you face related to acquaintance rape. It also suggests strategies you can take by yourself or with other students to prevent acquaintance rape and stay in control.
What Is Acquaintance Rape?
Rape occurs when someone forces another person to have sexual intercourse of any kind; vaginal, oral, or anal. Rape can occur between opposite or same-sex individuals.
When someone forces another person to have sexual intercourse, he or she is subject to the same criminal penalties whether the victim is an acquaintance or a total stranger, and whether or not either party is intoxicated.
In the case of acquaintance rape, the rapist and victim know each other. They may live in the same residence hall or attend the same class. They may be dating or romantically involved. Such cases are sometimes called date rape. Rape is always a crime, whether or not the rapist knows the victim.
How Common Is Acquaintance Rape on Campus?
The most common violent crime on college campuses today is acquaintance rape. About 1 out of 6 college women have been raped or been the victim of attempted rape during the past year. More than 8 out of 10 of these women knew their attackers.
The vast majority of reported cases are committed by men against women. The problem is not limited to a tiny group of male students. In a national survey, one out of every 15 male students during the past year raped or attempted to rape a woman.
"I would warn a girlfriend about drinking and hooking up [with a man] because your thinking gets really warped. He's like, 'Let's go back to the room and just talk and listen to music.' When you're sober, you know that's not what's going on, but when you have a couple of beers, you have to be careful that you don't fall into that." (senior woman)
What Role Does Alcohol Play?
Drinking alcohol can set you up to be a victim of sexual assault, or someone who commits rape. Whether you are a man or woman, drinking alcohol reduces four skills that can protect you. These skills form the word RAPE:
R -realize what situations place you in danger of committing rape or being a victim of rape;
A -avoid and manage conflicts with partners and intimates;
P -perceive clearly what others are doing; and
E -establish and communicate your desires and limits about sex.
"When I woke up, she was crying, and we both were shocked and unsure about what had happened. I've lived with that experience ever since. For months afterwards, I was depressed and frightened. I dropped out of school for a semester. I know she's suffered. If people knew how awful it is to take advantage of someone and live with yourself afterwards they would act very differently." (junior man)
Most people admit that their thinking gets distorted when they drink. As a result, they can miss important danger signals, such as changes in the voice or behavior of a potential assailant. They are also less likely to avoid or talk their way out of a conflict.
Women and men who drink are less able to communicate what they want and don't want in terms of sex. The odds that "maybe" or even "no" will be interpreted as "yes" increase when either party has been drinking.
Some students push others to drink so they will be unable to resist physical or emotional pressure to have sex. Men who drink are also at greater risk of being accused of raping someone, rightly or wrongly. And there's one other problem: like it or not, many men and women feel that a woman who has more than one or two drinks is asking for sex, no matter what she says.
"Be very wary of guys giving you free alcohol! I mean, if a guy keeps pouring free vodka down your throat, it's not necessarily benevolent. He's trying to get you drunk enough to get you to go home with him." (senior woman)
Regardless of how much a woman drinks, however, a man is never justified in forcing sex on her if she resists or says "no," or if she is under the influence of alcohol.
Consequences
of Acquaintance Rape
Horrible in itself, acquaintance rape can have other awful consequences:
- It can cause lasting emotional and legal damage.
- It can disrupt or end schooling.
- It can result in pregnancy.
- It can expose both men and women to sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs), including AIDS. And STDs are epidemic among adolescents and young adults, who acquire new infections at a rate of about one person per second.
"Any time you're drunk, you're vulnerable - I think women are more vulnerable when they're drunk because of what could happen afterwards; date rape, or sexual molestation, or whatever." (freshman male)
Remember, if you have sex when you drink, you are less likely to use condoms - or to use them properly. This puts women at risk of unwanted pregnancy and puts both men and women at risk of becoming infected. Students who binge drink, for example, are more than seven times as likely to have unprotected sex as are students who don't binge.
"[Our drinking] started getting out of control. All the time, every weekend, there would be some tragedy . . . . Somebody would hook up with some-body that they really shouldn't have. And it would be like, 'I cannot believe I was with that guy the other night, I didn't even know this guy! I have no idea what happened. ' Sometimes you just wake up next to him or something, and you don't know what happened, and you don't want to ask him." (freshman woman)
What Can You Do To Protect Yourself?
If you're a woman . . you can stay in control and reduce your personal risk if you identify and change the things you do that put you in danger.
- Most importantly, drink less or not at all. If you do drink, do so in moderation (for example, no more than a drink an hour with food).
- Drink only in safe, supervised places.
- Work with your friends to take care of each other. Avoid walking home alone after a party. Use a buddy system or use campus escort services when walking on or around campus after class hours, especially at night.
- Look out for other women who may be at risk and intervene by alerting others or calling campus police if necessary.
- Avoid going by yourself to a room with a man who has been drinking - whether it's his room, your room, or someone else's room. Tell a friend where you're going and when you'll be back, so he or she can look out for you.
- Trust your instincts if you feel threatened or unsafe with someone.
"If you have people you know at a party who can walk you home or who are not going to leave until you leave and things like that, it really helps, especially for a woman." (junior woman)
If you're a man - you can prevent acquaintance rape in several ways.
- You can reduce your risk of harming someone else through misunderstandings about sex by reducing or stopping your drinking when you socialize. Drinking moderately or not at all (for example, no more than a drink an hour with food) will keep you more alert to when your behavior and the behavior of other men become aggressive.
- Speak out against acquaintance rape; communicate to other men that it's okay not to drink and not to have sex.
- Look out for women and men who may be at risk and intervene if necessary by alerting others or by calling campus police.
Everyone has a part to play in preventing acquaintance rape by creating an atmosphere of zero tolerance for heavy drinking and for any type of violence, including acquaintance rape.
If You Or A Friend Is A Victim Of Acquaintance / Stranger Rape:
Get help immediately from the following local or campus services:
Campus Police and Security Services 715-232-2222
Menomonie Police Department 715-232-1283
University Health Services 715-232-2468
Rape Crisis Center, The Bridge 715-235-9074
Myrtle Werth Hospital 715-235-5531
Do NOT take a shower or bath before getting help!
What
Can You Do To Make Your Campus Safer?
One: Make Campus Social Life Safe
Get involved in setting up or participating in alcohol-free parties and activities. Your campus social life should not be destructive, scary, or intimidating. Controlled drinking or no drinking before or during parties reduces violence, including acquaintance rape.
Controlled drinking or no drinking before or during parties can also improve your social life. Most students go to parties to meet people and talk. While many students assume alcohol helps them "loosen up" and meet others, disrespectful and uncontrolled behavior that results from drinking is a turn-off.
"Every time we went to a party, he had to come back really drunk. It was really annoying because I had to make sure he got home. He'd just go to bed in the clothes he was in. They reeked. When he was sick, it was really hard to have him [around]. And I just thought, you know, 'I didn't come here to be his mother.' (male roommate)
Two: Take Action on and Around Campus
Let your classmates and the college administration know that you are worried about acquaintance rape. Give them concrete suggestions about how to help, such as:
- Providing more frequent or extensive escort and shuttle services, including to off-campus sites, so that you and your friends can travel safely;
- Training residence advisors or student peer groups to help keep social events and parties safe;
- Supporting alcohol-free social spaces, activities, and housing;
- Enforcing campus rules for registering parties;
- Encouraging off-campus bars and restaurants to train their staff to serve alcohol responsibly.
- Writing letters to the editor of your campus newspaper about safety risks on campus. Use your campus media to heighten student and administration awareness about acquaintance rape and its links to alcohol.
- Making sure that student organizations are following the rules about using alcohol safely. Groups that aren't should be warned or suspended. Students need to protect, not excuse, each other.
Three: Take the Lead in Stopping Alcohol Abuse and Violence
Across the country students have led the effort to control alcohol misuse and the violence it causes. Rather than just accepting risks, students have become educated and organized. YOU can be a force for positive change at your school. On campuses and in national student organizations, advocacy groups are working to prevent acquaintance rape directly or by limiting the drinking that often leads to violence. YOU can be part of these efforts. YOU can be part of the solution.
Extra Steps You Can Take . . .
Encourage your school administration to take extra steps towards a safe environment on and around your campus, including:
- Providing mandatory workshops for students early in the year to educate them about the links between alcohol and acquaintance rape;
- Supporting peer education programs about sexuality and about acquaintance rape;
- Providing students and staff with training programs that help people who serve alcohol to do so responsibly;
- Training residence and faculty advisors to identify when students are misusing alcohol; and
- Setting limits on when and where alcohol can be served.
Sources of More Information and On Campus Contact:
UW-Stout
Counseling Center
410 Bowman Hall
715-232-2468
For
further information about alcohol and acquaintance rape:
Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention
www.higheredcenter.org
A publication of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Prepared by Elissa Weitzman, William DeJong, and Peter Finn. This flyer was produced under contract No. SS9-30-25-001. Views expressed are those of the contractor. No official support or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education is intended or should be inferred. Publication No. ED/OPE96-6. Last Update: June 22, 1999.