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Club Drug Use and Intentionality in Perceptions of Rape Victims

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Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether intentionality of alcohol or club drug use would affect observer attributions of a victim and a perpetrator after a sexual assault. Participants were 198 male and female college students sampled from a small college located in the United States. In general, participants attributed less blame to the victim, more guilt to the perpetrator, and were more likely to define the assault as rape and convict the perpetrator when the substance use was involuntary as opposed to voluntary. Participants also attributed more blame to the victim and less pleasure to the perpetrator when the sexual assault involved GHB as opposed to Everclear. Implications of these findings are discussed.

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Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Christopher Desiere, Brittany Kohlberger, Mike Richman, Jason Ruggieri, Julie Satkowski, and Jamie Weglarz for their assistance with data collection on this project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA

    D. J. Angelone

  2. Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, USA

    Damon Mitchell

  3. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Adriana Pilafova

Authors
  1. D. J. Angelone
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  2. Damon Mitchell
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  3. Adriana Pilafova
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. J. Angelone.

Appendix

Appendix

Brief Crime Report

Alleged Victim

Sara is a 19-year-old single, white, undergraduate student who lives in an urban community. Sara, an only child, was raised in a middle class family. She graduated with honors from her high school and later enrolled in a 4-year university. Sara lives in an apartment near campus with three roommates. The campus is located in the heart of a northeastern city. Sara serves as vice president of a school organization and has many friends and acquaintances. However, she seldom goes to parties and has little experience with alcohol and drugs.

Alleged Incident

The following events allegedly occurred on the evening of September 16, 2003 at around midnight: After spending a significant amount of time dancing at a house party, Sara decided to take a break and have a drink. She poured a cup of heavily sweetened fruit punch and was simultaneously approached by a young man. The man introduced himself as Steve, a resident of the house holding the party. Steve and Sara began to make small talk. A few minutes later Steve refilled Sara’s drink and put some GHB (a popular club drug) in Sara’s cup without her noticing. Sara proceeded to finish her punch, without tasting the drug/alcohol while the casual conversation continued. Steve later asked Sara to go to the dance floor where she began to feel extremely sleepy. Steve invited her up to his room, where he forced Sara to have sexual intercourse. Sara had initially said “no” but felt too groggy to physically resist. Sara awoke the next morning, left the house, and went to the local police office. She provided some identifying information about the offender, including the location of the house.

Alleged Offender

Police identified the alleged offender as Steve L., a 21-year old, student at the university. When questioned by police, Steve denied sexually assaulting Sara, claiming that the sex was consensual.

*The above represents the involuntary GHB use scenario. Except for the italics text, all other elements remained the same for the alternative scenarios.

Changes to italics for voluntary GHB use scenario:

Sara was offered some GHB (a popular club drug) by a friend and proceeded to put it in her own cup.

Changes to italics for involuntary alcohol use scenario:

Steve poured Everclear (one of the most potent brands of alcohol sold in America) in Sara’s cup without her noticing.

Changes to italics for voluntary alcohol use scenario:

Sara was offered some Everclear (one of the most potent brands of alcohol sold in America) by a friend and proceeded to pour it into her own cup.

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Angelone, D.J., Mitchell, D. & Pilafova, A. Club Drug Use and Intentionality in Perceptions of Rape Victims. Sex Roles 57, 283–292 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9262-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9262-9

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