Ohio University Study Examines Self-Blame in Women Victims of Sexual Assault

Past research has shown that when women have been sexually assaulted while under the influence of alcohol, people tend to place more blame on the victim than when the women who were assaulted were sober.

Now a study by Courtney Wineland and Brandie Pugh, two undergraduate students at Ohio University, examines if alcohol plays any role in how women perceive themselves after they have been sexually assaulted. The study surveyed more than 630 college women. Of those surveyed, 158 women reported that they had been sexually assaulted since they were 14 years old.

The results showed that women who were under the influence of alcohol at the time they were attacked were more likely to blame themselves than women who were sober at the time they were assaulted. The data also showed that 81.6 percent of the women who reported that they had been sexually assaulted were under the influence of alcohol when they were attacked.

“It just hurts, the idea of the victims blaming themselves for something that they did not have any control over,” said Pugh.