Many sexual assaults on our campus have at least two things in common: They involve alcohol, and they go unreported. In fact, the reason that many sexual assaults go unreported is because they involve alcohol. Both of these facts are problematic, and both must to be addressed.
Excessive consumption of alcohol can make the line between drunk sex and rape seem blurry. The fuzz disappears, however, if one definitively knows how his or her partner would answer the six questions that comprise the elements of consent: who, what, where, when, why and how. This means not just obtaining consent, but obtaining “effective” consent that is valid given circumstances that may involve intoxication and incapacitation.
Many online commenters lambasted women who drank as self-made victims who blame others so they don’t have to take responsibility for their own regrets. According to one commenter: “If you drink till you pass out, you can’t then complain that other people took advantage of you … Enough with the victim identity, women.” Another commenter goes farther: “Going to a party and getting so drunk you pass out is a desperate call for sexual attention … The passed out person can’t really say she didn’t intend any sexual activity. She intended it very much … It’s really unfair that the second they wake up they start blaming all of man-kind.”
These accusations are absurd and disturbing. Not all people who get drunk do so planning to take part in sexual activity. Princeton students get drunk for a variety of reasons, sometimes even accidentally. One can never be certain of another person’s sexual intentions unless they are explicitly expressed.
And if someone does take advantage of an incapacitated person, he or she is entirely responsible for their actions. If someone beats up a drunk person, it doesn’t make taking advantage of that person any more justifiable or the perpetrator less responsible because the person was drunk. The same goes for sexual assault.
Some may argue that these rules only apply when the drunken person says “no” or is actually passed out. One comment asserts: “That is, when you aren’t unconscious, and you aren’t saying no, YOU ARE NOT GETTING RAPED.” Actually, someone who is not passed out and still seems to be functioning may still be incapable of providing consent.
When drinking heavily, many people experience blackouts that impair their ability to make short-term memories despite being able to function in an apparently normal manner. They are unable to register new events in their memory and therefore cannot comprehend or make judgments about what is going on around them. In every respect, the decision-making capacity of a person in such a state is the same as that of an unconscious person.
While being blacked out is the extreme case, University policy and the law state that if a reasonable person knew or ought to have known that someone was mentally incapacitated, including from alcohol, then it is grounds for sexual assault.
Comments like the ones found online cloud a sexual assault survivor’s mind with doubt in the hours, days and weeks after the crime. Was it their fault? Was there something they could have done? The answer is no in all cases. And those comments could even deter future victims from reporting cases of sexual assault. There is no situation where the sexual assault survivor is at fault, and to create such doubt in survivors through comments such as the ones listed above is unconscionable.
Laurie Frey ’09 and Sean McGinnis ’11 are members of SpeakOut. They can be reached individually at jfrey@princeton.edu and smcginni@princeton.edu.
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