The role of drugs and alcohol in rape.

Alcohol and drugs have been inextricably linked
with sexual assault. Media coverage has increasingly
highlighted the health risks facing intoxicated
women and more recently identified the risk of rape
as an additional hazard. Using a sample of rape cases
reported to the police between 1999 and 2004, this
paper establishes that rapes involving intoxicants
(alcohol and/or drugs) are distinguishable from those
which do not. Further analysis discovered that the
identity of the intoxicated parties (i.e. men, women,
neither or both) is important in differentiating rapes.
Results report differences by location of assault,
victim offender relationship, victim and offender
characteristics and offence behaviours. A consistent
finding from the analysis is that the victim’s state of
sobriety or inebriation appears more significant than
that of the offender. The implications for crime
prevention and directions for future research are
discussed.