Windsor, Ontario date rape research shown attitude of blame for some victims

Don Lajoie, The Windsor Star Published: Wednesday, May 14, 2008

From the frat house to the jury room, victims of date rape who voluntarily used drugs or alcohol prior to their assault are judged more harshly than those whose drinks were deliberately "spiked" by their attackers, says a University of Windsor researcher.

Doctoral student April Girard, who wrote the report in conjunction with her project supervisor, psychology professor Charlene Senn, said the results of the four-year study that surveyed 280 male and female undergraduate students showed the "she-was-asking-for-it" mentality still persists on campus and in society. Voluntary drug use by a woman, Girard said, "decreases perceptions of her worth as a crime victim."

While her paper, The Role of the New Date Rape Drugs in Attributions About Date Rape, to be published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, found that the "perpetrator" is still held responsible for the sexual assault, his actions are "marginally excused" in cases where the victims voluntarily may have drunk to excess or taken illegal drugs before the crime was committed.

"Women's voluntary consumption of drugs prior to a sexual assault reduced perceptions of perpetrator responsibility and blame and increased blame to the victim compared with other situations," the paper's conclusions state.

"Our attitudes remain harsh on women who behave in a way society does not approve of," said Senn. "It remains a real obstacle to justice.... We have to do more education to make sure our criminal justice system, the police and judiciary are not operating from those biases as well."

The participants, who were canvassed about their own sexual experiences, alcohol and drug use and beliefs in rape myths, were asked to read various scenarios involving sex assaults, and then to rate based on percentages how much each person's actions were responsible for the outcome of the incident.
In one scenario both the victim and the attacker are sober. In a second, the victim and the perpetrator have both been drinking the same amount of alcohol. In a third, the perpetrator is surreptitiously mixing the victim's drinks three-times stronger than his own. In the next, the victim has been slipped the date-rape drug GHB. In the final scenario, both are taking drugs.
In all the scenarios, the participants assigned the highest blame to the perpetrator. However levels of blame for the victim increased in the scenarios where they consumed drugs voluntarily. In the involuntary drug scenario the perpetrator was assigned 91 per cent of the blame. Results varied but In the voluntary drug use category, the perpetrator was given 79 per cent of the blame.
There was no significant spread in response depending upon the gender of the participant. However, Girard pointed out, the men were more likely to subscribe to "rape acceptance myths" such as a victim is more responsible if she wears provocative clothing.
Senn added that "in a very tiny minority" of cases, some participants blamed the victim 100 per cent for a rape if she had been voluntarily using drugs before the attack.
"Unfortunately, the results didn't surprise me," said Girard, a doctoral psychology student. "It lives up to stereotypical attitudes. 'She was wearing provocative clothes, what was she doing out at night?' So it's not surprising that people would question her drinking and not conclude a rape is a rape, is a rape."
She said background information she accessed in her research also showed that those same attitudes, to one degree or another, extend into jury rooms and into perceptions in the general population. The Belle River native added that interest in the study has been strong from women on and off campus.

Girard said she came up with the idea for the study because of stories related to her by female friends. She said one friend even ended up so intoxicated she had to be taken home from a Windsor bar despite being the designated driver and drinking only water that night. She suspected drugs were slipped into her glass.

"I thought she shouldn't have to stand guard over her drink just to ensure she's not sexually assaulted," said Girard. "It didn't make sense to me."

Unfortunately, she added, the lesson she learned was, fair or not, young women still need to be vigilant in bars.

"Women already have a difficult enough time coming forward when they've been raped," she said. "We need to educate people further as a way to continue to fight attitudes where people hold women responsible for rape."