Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
School of Human Environmental Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2019 Mar;80(2):252-260. doi: 10.15288/jsad.2019.80.252.
Alcohol-related sexual violence remains a public health problem. Despite the popularity of sexual assault bystander intervention programs, these may be limited in addressing bystander intoxication because the effects of intoxication on intervening in a sexual assault are unknown. Therefore, we tested the effects of alcohol intoxication on the five steps of bystander intervention in a sexual assault vignette.
Young adults (N = 128; 50% women) were randomly assigned to consume alcohol (target blood alcohol concentration = 0.08%; n = 64) or a nonalcoholic control beverage (n = 64) in a bar-laboratory. Next, participants were presented with a vignette describing events occurring in a convivial drinking context that ends with nonconsensual sexual behavior. Latané and Darley's bystander intervention model steps were assessed in a semistructured interview.
Participants in the control condition recalled the story more accurately (Step 1: notice the event) and reported greater risk/need for intervention (Step 2), but they did not differ on the latter three steps of bystander intervention compared with alcohol-condition participants. Intoxication effects were similar for men and women. Furthermore, risk/need for intervention (Step 2) partially mediated the effect of alcohol condition on personal responsibility (Step 3) and relative benefits versus costs from intervening (Step 4).
Prevention programs should consider the effects of alcohol on detecting a sexual assault and the need to intervene. If intoxicated bystanders do not detect a sexual assault, then bystanders will not reach the crucial steps (i.e., taking responsibility for intervening; willingness and ability to intervene) required to intervene successfully.
与酒精相关的性暴力仍是一个公共卫生问题。尽管性侵犯旁观者干预计划广受欢迎，但这些计划可能在解决旁观者醉酒问题方面存在局限性，因为醉酒对干预性侵犯的影响尚不清楚。因此，我们测试了酒精中毒对性侵犯情景模拟中旁观者干预五个步骤的影响。
将青年成年人（N=128；50%为女性）随机分配到酒吧实验室中摄入酒精（目标血液酒精浓度=0.08%；n=64）或非酒精对照饮料（n=64）。接下来，参与者观看了一个描述在欢乐饮酒情境中发生的事件的情景模拟，其中最后发生了非自愿的性行为。在半结构化访谈中评估了拉坦涅和达利的旁观者干预模型步骤。
对照组参与者更准确地回忆起故事（步骤 1：注意事件），并报告了更大的干预风险/需求（步骤 2），但与酒精组参与者相比，他们在后三个旁观者干预步骤上没有差异。男女参与者的醉酒影响相似。此外，干预风险/需求（步骤 2）部分中介了酒精条件对个人责任（步骤 3）和干预的相对收益与成本（步骤 4）的影响。
预防计划应考虑酒精对察觉性侵犯和干预需求的影响。如果醉酒的旁观者没有察觉性侵犯，那么旁观者就无法达到成功干预所需的关键步骤（即承担干预责任；愿意并有能力进行干预）。
