Beer pong, body shots, keg stands: Alcohol central to college, and assault (Excerpt)

Washington Post

By Emma Brown, Steve Hendrix and Susan Svrluga

June 14, 2015

Beer pong, body shots and keg stands. Fraternity parties, house parties and bar crawls.

College, for many students, is a generously spiked four years.

And with all that alcohol comes an increased risk of sexual violence, according to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll that provides new evidence of the link between intoxication and sexual assault.

Heavy drinking is one of the most significant predictors of sexual assault in college, according to the poll of 1,053 current and recent college students. Analysis of the results found that women who say they sometimes or often drink more than they should are twice as likely to be victims of completed, attempted or suspected sexual assaults as those who rarely or never drink. Several male victims also pointed to alcohol’s role in their assaults.

Stuart Dunnings III, a county prosecutor in Michigan whose purview includes 50,000-student Michigan State University in East Lansing, said many of the rape cases that come across his desk involve two young people who had been drinking.