A team of scholars led by Jennifer Livingston, associate professor of nursing at the University at Buffalo in New York, has published a new study documenting the difference in sexual assault trends before and during the pandemic. Although the number of sexual assault incidents declined in 2020 and 2021, there was an increase in assaults from current and former romantic partners.
Initially, the research team sought out to investigate the role of social context in understanding alcohol-involved sexual assault risk. They recruited a sample of women between the ages of 22 and 25 and periodically collected the participants’ reports of socializing, alcohol and substance use, and sexual assault from 2019 to 2021. When the pandemic lockdown occurred over a year into their study, the participants’ stopped or reduced their time spent in public settings, providing Dr. Livingston and her co-authors a unique opportunity to study how changes in the participants’ social context and alcohol use impacted sexual assault risk before and during the pandemic.
According to the authors analysis, the number of sexual assaults experienced by the participants decreased by about half compared to pre-pandemic levels. As women were less likely to go to public social gatherings, such as bars or parties, they were more likely to spend time with one or two people and less likely to drink compared to what they did prior to the pandemic lockdown.
However, on days when women did drink alcohol during the pandemic, they were three times more likely to experience sexual assault. Additionally, women were more likely to be assaulted by former partners rather than new sexual partners during this time period.
The authors believe their findings highlight a need for more research into how social contexts contribute to the risk of sexual violence. By advancing the understanding of these risk factors, researchers can work to develop more effective prevention and intervention strategies.