Cardinal Points

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: FUSE

A study done at SUNY at Buffalo claims that alcohol has a significant effect on sexual and physical assaults during women's first year in college. PSUC health and violence officials disagree, saying that assaults occur because of people, not alcohol. [Click to enlarge]

Plattsburgh State health and violence prevention officials disagree with the results of a recent study done by the University at Buffalo's research institute regarding addictions.

The study found that an increase in a young woman's drinking habits during her first year at college can yield serious physical and/or sexual consequences.

Of the 870 women involved in the study, 22 percent of them experienced some sort of physical and/or sexual victimization during their first year at school, Kathleen A. Parks, the study's senior investigator, said.

Of the women who drank during their first year of college, the study showed that 7 percent had experienced some sort of physical victimization, while 19 percent suffered from sexual victimization, Parks said.

However, there were women who experienced dangerous situations but did not connect them to their drinking habits. According to Parks, 2 percent of women who abstained from drinking in their first year at school experienced physical victimization, while 7 percent experienced some sort of sexual victimization.

Alcohol was found to have something to do with the victimization of women on college campuses, but women who abstained from drinking all together still experienced some sort of physical or sexual harm, so it is evident that alcohol is not the only factor to consider.

There are many steps women can take to protect themselves, and abstaining from drinking alcohol is not the only one.

From a biological standpoint, the brain is not fully developed until the age of 25, and thus, the consumption of alcohol before this age can impair the brain's development, PSUC Health Educator Jerimy Blowers said.

Continued...

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