Study Finds Relationship Between Binge Drinking and Sexual Assault on College Campuses

A new study finds that nearly half of all women who did not drink alcohol in high school, participate in binge drinking at least one time by the end of their first semester in college. And the results of the study found that first-year women students who did engage in binge drinking were more at-risk for sexual assault.

The findings showed that one quarter of women who had engaged in binge drinking of four to six drinks had been victims of sexual assault. For women in their first-year of college who consumed 10 drinks or more in a binge drinking episode, 59 percent had been victims of sexual assault.

Maria Testa, lead author of the study and a scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions at the State University of New York at Buffalo, states that “drinking prevention efforts should begin before college” even for women who have shown no alcohol drinking behavior while in high school. Dr. Testa stresses that women who have been victims of sexual assault are not to blame, but efforts to reduce binge drinking among women students may result in less sexual assaults on college campuses.

The research appears in the January issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs which is published by the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey.