A comparison of alcoholics and non-alcholics charged with rape.

In the last decade a growing body of research has called attention to the consumption of alcohol as a factor contributing to the commission of rape. Rada, Amir, and Gebhard et al., have stressed the association between rape and alcoholism, although the estimated strength of that association (correlation) has varied widely. l.2.3,4,5 The purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution of alcoholism and alcohol use to the occurrence of rape, through examination of the life histories of alcohol use in prisoners who have been charged with rape. Rada has proposed three mechanisms for the contribution of alcohol consumption to the act of rape. First, the consumption of alcohol may lower an individual's inhibitions against rape and may contribute to his sense of power. Second, an alcoholic may commit rape as" one of a series of maladaptive and self-destructive behaviors resulting from personality deterioration secondary to • alcohol' addiction," with the addiction dynamic being the primary problem. Third, alcohol may chemically trigger in some individuals a process producing sexual and aggressive fantasies, desires, and sensations, which in turn lead to rape. In a series of reports, Rada and his colleagues have examined seventyseven rapists being treated at a facility for mentally-disordered sex offenders. They found these patients to be alcoholic according to the criteria of Selzer and the National Council on Alcoholism;6,7 however, they were unable to find clear-cut support for their typology among the psychosocial characteristics of these rapists. They concluded that the main difference between alcoholic and non-alcoholic rapists was the addiction to alcohol. Wilson has proposed a contrasting theory which emphasizes social learning as the primary mechanism for alcohol's contribution to rape.8 He argues that alcohol consumption has learned and socially-defined effects which are differentially reinforced by cognitive and modeling experiences rather than by biochemical action. It is in a social context of alcohol use that individuals learn to engage in actions for which they assume no