ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the relationship between legal drinking age, rape, and average consumption of alcoholic beverages to learn the significance in drinking habits and being a victim of rape. Using a survey, Violence and Threats of Violence Against Women and Men in the
United States, 1994-1996 I was able to find these relationships. The universe from which this

sample was conducted was all men and women in the United States who were 18 years or older. The sample involved 8,000 men and 8,005 women as a total of 16,005. The sample was stratified by the U.S. Census region and within the strata of working, residential, household banks phone numbers were drawn. The numbers were generated by a randomly generated two-digit number that was appended to each randomly sampled hundreds bank to produce the full 10-digit phone number. This research found to be statistically significant between females who consume 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average and rape victims. However, this research did not prove to be statistically significant between age and rape. Also the relationship between age, rape, and average consumption of alcoholic beverages did not prove to be statistically significant. Key Words: rape, consumption of alcohol, underage

INTRODUCTION
Rape myths have been defined as prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists (that) create a climate hostile to rape victims (Burt, 1980, p. 217) or that serve to deny and justify male sexual aggression against women (Lonsway & Fitzgerald,

1994, p.134). Rape myths include beliefs about the causes of rape, such as beliefs that blame victims and exonerate perpetrators, but do not focus on the broad range of beliefs people hold about the causes of rape (Cowan, 1997, p.227). I am studying the correlation between alcohol and rape using the Violence and Threats of Violence Against Women and Men in the United States dataset. I want to share what my thoughts were when I first began writing my hypothesis. Women who are under the legal drinking age, that consume alcohol, tend to consume a higher amount of alcohol than do women who are of legal drinking age. Younger women who are under the legal drinking age tend to be raped more than women of the legal drinking age. There are many factors that can aid to this outcome. The more alcohol women consume the more they are not in control of their actions or thoughts therefore making them more vulnerable to be raped. Also the younger the women are the more trusting and unaware they are about their surroundings and the likelihood of someone elses intentions. Therefore, young women under the legal drinking age that do drink are more likely to be raped than the older women who are of the legal drinking age and drink. From my findings I was extremely surprised to find that there was no correlation between age and rape. So there is no confusion when I use the term "raped" I mean the penis penetrating the vagina.

Literature Review and Hypotheses

Wechsler (2008) competed a study on 4 year college students. Within this study there were 50,000 students participating of the 120 colleges that took part. This study was made to gather research to find problems that came with drinking among college students and then to solve these problems (Wechsler, (2008) p. 481 prg. 2). To gather research they used a survey method. The results from this study was they found that their rule of 5/4 binge drinking had 53% reported alcohol related injuries who

drank 5 or fewer drinks in a row and 21% had 8 or more (Wechsler, (2008) p. 482 prg. 4). This study has brought to my attention that people cannot handle their alcohol because more people are reporting alcohol related injuries at 5 or fewer drinks. Therefore, supporting this next article I am using in my study: The Correlates of Rape while Intoxicated in a National Sample of College Women by Meichun Mohler-Kuo, George W. Dowdall, Mary P. Koss, and Henry Wechsler. The purpose of this study was to present prevalence data for rape under the condition of intoxication when the victims is unable to consent and to identify the college individuallevel risk factors associated with that condition. This study was done on a sample size of 8,567 women in the 1997 survey, 8,425 in the 1999 survey, and 6,988 in the 2001 survey. As a result of this study they found that 1 in 20 women reported being raped, and 72% of those women that were raped were intoxicated during the incident. Researchers dug a little bit deeper and found further detailed results. Women who were under 21, were white, resided in sorority house, used illicit drugs, drank heavily in high school and attended colleges with high rates of heavy episodic drinking were at high risk of rape while intoxicated (Mohler-Kuo, (2004) p. 37- Abstract). Drinking underage is prevalent in high school and as a result it is also prevalent in college. As a result of drinking heavily in high school, there is a correlation, proven in this study that shows the higher risk of being raped in college while being intoxicated. From the first study that Wechsler (2008) did he was able to prove that it took less alcohol consumption to become at risk of getting hurt by finding out the number of reported alcohol-related injuries. The results found from Mohler-Kuo (2004) are supported by Wechsler (2008) because it takes less for women to get intoxicated- hence the 5/4 rule. A third article I am using in my study is The Scope of Rape: Incidence and Prevalence of Sexual Aggression and Victimization in a National Sample of Higher Education by Mary P. Koss, Christine A. Gidycz, and Nadine Wisniewski. After determining their sample frame, they administered a self-report questionnaire to a national sample of 6,159 students enrolled in 32 institutions of higher education

across the United States (Koss, (1987) p. 163- Methods). The study they were doing was to find out the real number of sexual assaults that include the reported and unreported instances after the age of 14. They asked females if they were ever sexually assaulted or if you were a male had sexually assaulted a female. As a result they found that almost twice the number of women reporting rape in private colleges (14%) and major universities (17%) as it was at religiously affiliated institutions (7%). Research also found from results that the number of sexual victimization doesnt vary on the size of the institution or the number of minorities that attend the institution (Koss, (1987) p. 166 prg. 5). This brings up the limitations that sometimes there are unreported rapes. This is very unfortunate because these people go without the help and the support that people are trying to establish and to gain validity and reliability on the data. This study aided my research by including reported and unreported, rape victimizations from the national level which is a very large sample. Supporting the wide variations within a society making this a strong study. Teen Dating Violence (TDV) : Co-Occurrence With Other Victimizations in the National Survey of Childrens Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) (2012) by Sherry Hamby and David Finkelhor and Heather Turner did a study to showing the relationship between teed dating violence with other forms of victimizations. Their sample of 1,680 youth aged 12-17 from the National Survey of Childrens Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), a nationally representative telephone survey of victimization experiences. As results conclude the data indicates that physical TDV is especially closely associated with some forms of child maltreatment, sexual victimization, and polyvictimization (Hamby, (2012) Abstract). This article proves that TDV actually put teens at risk of many forms of victimization, rape being one of many. I saw that drinking as a youth increased the chances of TDV. When a teens chances for TDV went up, so did the chance of being victimized leading to my end point that a teen is ultimately are at risk of being raped from drinking as a youth. The Correlates of Rape while Intoxicated by Mohler-Kuo (2004) helps support that as well, by stating that females under 21 were more likely to be raped.

There were findings on the perspective of younger individuals, who were less educated, that seemed to rate rape differently on the Likert-scale, than did older individuals, who had more education. In the article Cognitive style and attitudinal correlates of the perceived causes of rape scale by Gloria Cowan and Wendy J Quinton, was extended research which was applied to measure the perceived causes of rape among college students, ages 22-26. A total number of 270 students participated. There were 78 males and 192 females. The mean age was 23.7 (Cowan, (1997)). Even though this article does not have much to do with my study on women who consume more alcohol are more likely to be raped, it does show me insight on level of education which does go hand-in-hand with age on the outlook or perspective of rape. A male adolescent that has not been education on gender-related differences, tend to rate female precipitation as the highest cause of rape. For a female adolescent that has not been educated on gender-related differences, tend to rate male dominance as the highest cause of rape (Cowan, (1997) p.235 prg. 3). What is meant by male dominance is men in society are viewed as more dominant to be the cause of rape (Cowan, (1997) p.237-238). The most interesting part of this study is when both genders have been able to examine gender-related differences they tend to rate the same cause as the highest which is Males Hostility, and the weakest which is Male Sexuality, as cause of rape. What is meant by Males Hostility is as a cause of rape suggests that mens hostility and anger toward women cause rape, and Males Sexuality is meant as mens uncontrollable sexuality as a cause of rape focuses on the perception of men as hypersexual beings (Cowan, (1997) p.237-238). It proves that there is an effect of lack of knowledge, when it comes to rape. As younger and less educated individuals males are blaming the females and the females are blaming the males, giving them no responsibility of actions taken. Younger adolescents are more vulnerable to being raped or actually raping an individual. This study is to prove controlling for age, a female who consumes the average of 4 or more alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages are more likely to be raped than a female who consumes the average of 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink

alcoholic beverages. A female who is of age 20 and younger, is more likely to be raped than a female that is of age 21 and older. A female who consumes the average of 4 or more alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages are more likely to be raped than a female who consumes the average of 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages. These hypotheses are important to research to find out if younger females, who drink are more at risk of being raped because it is more prevalent that they will not speak up about it, and they are more prone to come into more situations of victimization. If there were more studies done on youth, there might be more reliable answers and more of a foundation of what causes what. This study in particular would be to find out how many youths compared to older females are at risk of being rape and proving that underage drinking is not always fun- as many youths describe consuming alcohol. There are many consequences that many individuals would not want to go through, as this could act as a deterrent as well as an initiative to find solutions to problem solve. My three hypotheses restated are made from the NVAW survey. My first hypothesis is a female who is of age 20 and younger, is more likely to be raped than a female that is age 21 and older. Age is the independent variable and rape is the dependent variable. My second hypothesis is a female who consumes the average of 4 or more alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages are more likely to be raped than a female who consumes the average of 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages. The independent variable is the consumption of alcohol and the dependent variable is rape. My third and final hypothesis ties the first two hypotheses together. My third hypothesis is controlling for age, a female who consumes the average of 4 or more alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages are more likely to be raped than a female who consumes the average of 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages. The control variable is age the independent variable is consumption of alcohol and the dependent variable is rape.

Methods Section
Violence and Threats of Violence study was conducted to find more information to help further understand violence against women and to provide context in which to place womens experiences. The National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Surveyed both men and women. Completed interviews were obtained from 8,000 women and 8,005 men who were 10 years of age or older residing in households throughout the United States. Both men and women, including Spanish speaking and English speaking, interviews were conducted within a couple of years of each other. Half of the men were interviewed by women and the other half were interviewed by men to test for possible bias. The females were interviewed by only females for the sensitive nature of the survey. There are a number of categories included in this study within the 14 different sections of the questionnaire. They ask about the demographics of the respondent and the respondents intimate current partners. Interviewers also ask the respondent about experiences theyve had in terms of victimization and their level of fear of violence. The interviewers start out with a hook to get the respondents interested. They ask questions about fear of violence and how they respond to those fears. For example overall, would you say that personal safety for women in this country has improved since you were a child, gotten worse since you were a child, or stayed about the same? the possible answers: Improved?, Gotten worse?, Stayed about the same?, Dont know, Refused. There are questions about socio-demographics and characteristics of the respondent like health and lifestyle which helps identify precursors and correlates of victimization. The types of questions asked in this section are like Do you have any diseases?, What ethnicity are you?, Have you ever had a miscarriage?, How often do you drink?, Do you use drugs? They also ask information about past and present relationships, co-habiting partners etc. to

determine the importance of the love triangle as a risk factor among intimate partners Are you married? Single? Divorced? Separated?, Do you live with an intimate partner?, How many men are you currently involved with? Therefore, they proceed to ask about the socio-demographics of the respondents current partner. These questions range from the amount of time the respondents known their partner to, their partners employment status, their level of education completed, what their health condition is and how much they make, how much they drink and if they use drugs or not. That sections purpose is for identifying correlated of intimate abuse and high risk offenders. The next section asked questions related to controlling and emotionally abusive behavior by current and previous spouses and live-in partners for victimization and to test theories linking power and emotional abuse to assault, stalking and threats. These questions will bring out certain behavioral patterns to show if there is jealousy, possessiveness, verbal put-downs. As they get deeper into the telephone interview they will about victimization; sexual, physical, stalking, threats. These questions ask the respondent to disclose information about victimization and the relationship of the offender. Then questions to contain a detailed report of that victimization are asked. Like if there was any drugs or alcohol involved at the time of the incident?, did you knew the offender?, how many times has this occurred?, were you physically assaulted?, were you being stalked?, were you threatened?. At the end of the interview, the interviewer thanks the respondent and gives them more information to contact emergency numbers for safety purposes. The universe from which this study was conducted was all men and women in the United States 18 years of age or older. The researchers chose what houses to call by using a national sample, randomdigit sample of telephone households in the United States. The sample was stratified by the U.S. Census region, meaning the U.S. national population was divided into smaller groups, in this case the U.S. Census region. Then within the regional strata, or a specific portion of the population, of working, residential, hundreds banks phone numbers was drawn. A randomly generated two-digit number was

appended to each randomly sampled hundreds bank to produce the full 10-digit phone number. There were nonworking and nonresidential phone numbers screened out of the study. In order to figure out the designated respondent from each house, they used the most-recent-birthday method when there were multiple eligible respondents. The household participation rate was calculated by the number of completed and screened out interviews divided by the number of completed, screened out, and terminated interviews, was 72.1 percent in the female survey and 68.9 percent in the male survey. After the interviews were started, out of the 72.1 percent in the female survey there were 97 percent of the female respondents that completed the interview. Out of the 68.9 percent in the male survey there were 98 percent of the male respondents that completed the interview. To help the researchers gain better results this survey was completed in replicate samples of 500, 1,000 and 2,000 completed interviews. By doing a replicate sample of this survey determined if they should ask certain questions differently, take out the question, make it close-ended or open ended, or if they should replicate the question to prove reliable. There were several exploratory open-ended questions that were on the first replicate sample but then edited into pre-coded questions in the next two replicate samples. Exploratory open-ended question, exploratory referring to the little or no research conducted in the area of study, and then open-ended means that there is no designated answers for the respondents to choose from. All the respondents answers will be aiding to new research, within this study. Yet that changed on the next two replicate samples.

As an example of descriptions and frequencies of four demographic, non-hypotheses variables from the study: gender, level of education completed, racial background, and marital status. The first variable is gender. There were 8,000 male respondents and 8,000 female respondents making 50 percent of respondents male. Gender also showed that the total number of respondents was 16,000. The second variable is the highest level of education the respondents completed. There were 1,602

respondents that were postgraduate which means that 10 percent of all respondents were postgraduates. There were 3,019 respondents who graduated from college with a 4 year degree making 18.8 percent of the respondents graduated from college with a 4 year degree. Of all respondents 42.9 percent had graduated high school, completed some of high school, finish 1st-8th grade, or had no schooling at all. Out of all the respondents 58 respondents answered dont know, refused, missing which totals up to about 4 percent of respondents. The third variable is racial background. There were 12,876 white respondents that is 80.5 percent of this studys interviews were done on individuals of white racial background. There were 1,439 black/African-American respondents, which is 9 percent of all the respondents. As for the American Indian/Alaskan native there were 193 respondents which is 1.2 percent of all the respondents. There were 5 percent of mixed race which totaled up to 803 out of the 16,000 respondents. As for the respondents who answered, dont know, refused, missing was a total of 319 respondents making up for 2.4 percent of the total respondents. Last but not least, the fourth variable is marital status. There were 10,259 individuals who were married when this interview was completed. That makes up 64.1 percent of the total respondents. There were 2,901 respondents that were single and never married which was 18.1 percent of total respondents. There were 70 individuals who were in a common-law relationship, which was .4 percent of the total respondents. There were 1,536 individuals that were divorced, at a 9.6 percent of the total respondents. The separated respondents came in at a total of 326 respondents, as that makes up 2.0 percent of the total respondents. The widowed respondents made up 5.2 percent of total respondents as there were 827 widowed individuals that were interviewed. For the respondents who answered dont know, refused, missing had a total of 81 individuals that made up .5 percent of all respondents.

From this study, I will be using three variables for my hypotheses. There are the control variable being the age, the independent variable being the amount of consumption of alcohol, and the

dependent variable which is rape. So there is no confusion when I use the term rape I mean the penis penetrating the vagina. These variables came from questions from the survey. The control variable question was simply asked as How old are you? making it an open-ended question and raging from ages 18 to 97 or older. There were 4.5 percent who were 18-20 compared to 94.1 percent of respondents who were of legal drinking age, making them 21 or older. I recoded the control variable into two categories. Instead of having ages 18 to 97 or older I recoded this data as Underage and Not underage. Underage means that the respondent is 18-20 years old which has a value of 1 and Not underage means that the respondent is 21 years old or older which has a value of 0. I recoded them like this because I am focusing on respondents under the drinking age, so cross-tabulation data will provide me with numbers referring to underage respondents. The independent variable came from a question that was asked as How many drinks did you average on the days that you drank alcoholic beverages? This question gave respondents a space to write down the Number of drinks averaged *Range is 1-19+, and the options to circle 20 or more, Dont know, and Refused. There were 39.9 percent that had consumed 19 and under drinks on average each time they drank alcoholic beverages. There were .2 percent of the respondents who had consumed 20 or more drinks on average each time they drank alcoholic beverages. I recoded this variable into two categories as well. Instead of having 20 different options I made two options that are 3 or fewer and 4 or more. 3 or fewer means if respondent consumes 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages on average, which has a value of 0. 4 or more means if respondent drinks 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average, which has a value of 1. I recoded this variable into two options because I am looking at respondents who consume a higher amount of alcohol, which is why 4 or more is recoded as a value of 1 and 3 or fewer is recoded as a value of 0. The dependent variable came from the question, which was only answered by females, Regardless of how long ago it happened, has a man or boy ever made you have sex by using force of

threatening to harm you or someone else? Just so there is no mistake, by sex we mean putting penis in your vagina. The categories of answers were available to choose are Yes, No, Dont know, Refused, Missing. There were 1,030 females that answered yes to being raped which is 6.4 percent of total respondents. There were 6,902 who answered not raped which are 43.1 percent of the total respondents. The total amount of respondents was 7,999 out of the 16,000 respondents because this question was only asked to females and not to males. I recoded this variable to Yes and No and didnt include the missing so I could see valid correlations between the different variables. I didnt have to recode the value for Yes, it remained at a value of 1. I did however recode No to represent a value of 0. I did this so in cross-tabulation data I will be able to see the actual correlations of females who were raped as Yes represents 1 and No represents 0, giving it no representation. This makes it easier to figure out what the actual number of the females who were not raped when looking at the percentage of females that were raped when it is out of 100% because by subtracting the percentage of females that were raped from 100. It is out of 100% because I did not include the missing data in this research study as it is easier to understand from the following tables.

Findings

In Table 1, using cross-tabulation shows the relationship between drinking age and being raped. My hypothesis is that a female who is age 20 and younger, is more likely to be raped than a female that is age 21 and older. Not underage represents the females that are 21 years old and older and underage represents 20 years old and younger. The independent variable is drinking age and the dependent variable is rape. Of underage individuals 13.60% were raped compared to the13.00% of not underage individuals who were raped. Of the females who were underage 86.40% were not raped compared to 87.00% females that were not of age were not raped. They had almost identical outcomes between both

variables around 13% of both not underage and underage were raped. A female who is 20 years old and younger has the same chance of being raped than a female who is 21 years old and older. This relationship is not statistically significant (chi-square =.086, p-value=.769). Table 1. Drinking Age and Raped, NVAW Drinking Age Raped No Not Underage 6502 87.00% Yes 975 13.00% Chi-Square=.086 Underage 273 86.40% 43 13.60% Total 6775 86.90% 1018 13.10% p=.769

In Table 2, using cross-tabulation shows the relationship between average amount of drinks consumed and being raped. My hypothesis is that a female who consumes the average of 4 or more alcoholic beverages on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages are more likely to be raped than a female who consumes the average of 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages the days she does drink alcoholic beverages. The independent variable is the average amount of drinks consumed and the dependent variable is rape. About 19.70% of females who consume 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average were raped. 12.10% of females who consume 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages on average were raped. Of female who consumes 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average there were 80.70% who were not raped. For the females who consumed 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages on average there were 87.90% who were not raped. This cross-tabulation shows there is a positive correlation between a female who consumes 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average are more likely to be raped. This relationship is statistically significant at the .001 level (chi-square =12.990, p<.001).

Table 2. Average Amount of Drinks and Raped, NVAW Average Amount of Drinks Raped No 3 or Fewer 1993 87.80% Yes 277 12.20% Chi-Squared=12.990 4 or More 241 80.30% 59 19.70% Total 2234 86.90% 336 13.10% p<.001***

In Table 3, using cross-tabulation shows the relationship between the average amount of drinks consumed and being raped controlling for age. My hypothesis is controlling for age, a female who consumes the average of 4 or more alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages are more likely to be raped than a female who consumes the average of 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages. The control variable is age, the independent variable is the average amount of alcohol consumed, and the dependent variable is rape. For being not underage there were 19.30% of the females who, on averaged consumed 4 or more alcoholic beverages were raped compared to the 12.10% of the females who were raped and on average consumed 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages. This show there is a positive correlation between females who consumed 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average who were 21 years or older and being raped. This was statistically significant at the .01 level. My hypothesis was not supported by these findings. The cross-tabulation shows that 24.00% of the females who are underage and on average consume 4 or more alcoholic beverages were raped and 15.60% of the females who are underage and on average consume 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages were raped. This proving my hypothesis wrong showing that this relationship is not statistically significant (chi-squared=11.539, p-value=.384). Females that are underage do not

have a higher chance of being raped when they consume 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average compared to females who are underage and consume 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages on average.

Table 3. Average Amount of Drinks and Raped controlling for Drinking Age, NVAW Panel A. Not Underage Raped No Average Amount of Drinks 3 or Fewer 1919 87.90% Yes 263 12.10% Chi-Squared=11.539 4 or More 221 80.70% 53 19.30% Total 2140 87.10% 316 12.90% p<.01**

Panel B. Underage Raped No Average Amount of Drinks 3 or Fewer 38 84.40% Yes 7 15.60% Chi-Squared=.758 4 or More 19 76.00% 6 24.00% p=.384 Total 57 81.40% 13 18.60%

Discussion and Conclusion

I first hypothesized that a female who is of age 20 and younger, is more likely to be raped than a female that is age 21 and older. My results show that there little to no difference in a female who is 20 or younger and raped compared to 21 and older and raped. There was a .04 percent difference between the two but the actual number of females that were underage and raped is 43 compared to 975 females who were not underage and raped. My second hypothesis is a female who consumes the average of 4 or more alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages are more likely to be raped than a female who consumes the average of 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages. This relationship proves to be statistically significant at the level of .001. However, this does not prove that every women who was raped was drunk. It shows a positive correlation between the two variables. These results showing this relationship proves my hypothesis right. The study done by Mohler et al. (2004) relates to my research as Mohler studied the correlates of rape while intoxicated. His total sample size was 8,567 women in 1997 survery, 8,425 in 1999 survey, and 6,988 in 2001 survey. His results from these survey showed that 1 in 20 women report being raped. Out of the women who have reported being raped, 72% of them were raped while intoxicated. These finding support my hypothesis and further helps explain it. My third hypothesis is controlling for age, a female who consumes the average of 4 or more alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages are more likely to be raped than a female who consumes the average of 3 or fewer alcoholic beverages, on the days she does drink alcoholic beverages. My results showed that this hypothesis was not statistically significant. What I find strange about this cross-tabulation, is that the percentages do prove my hypothesis right, but the pvalue does not. The reason for this is that there is a small sample size for females who are underage. It show that 53 women who are not underage and consumes 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average hold a percentage of 19.30%. Compared to the 6 females who are underage and consume 4 or more

alcoholic beverages on average at a 24%. Clearly, the results show that the percentage is greater for females who are underage and drink 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average were raped more than not underage females who drink 4 or more alcoholic beverages on average and were raped. Yet that isnt a proper representation because when you compare the actual numbers of the respondents in the cross-tabulation you can see that 53 women compared to 6 is a big difference. The 53 women who were not underage, raped, and on average consume 4 or more alcoholic beverages are out of a total of 2,456 women who were not underage. As the 6 women who were underage, raped, and on average consume 4 or more alcoholic beverages are out of a total of 70 women who were underage.

As mentioned earlier there were a few limitations I ran into with this study. One limitation was the sample size. The number of individuals who were underage females, which in this case was only ages 18-20, made up about 5% of the total sample. If I had the chance to redo this study I would try and get a more equally dispersed, wider age range so the results could be more reliable. Also, another limitation was the unreported rapes. Many younger victims do not know that they are victims or how to go about reporting it. Many women who are older think it was their fault or they might be scared and chose not to report it. Thus, leading to an under represented results. If I was to redo the study I would first try and get more equally dispersed, wider age range. I would also ask, in two separate questions if any alcohol or drugs were involved. I would only ask those questions if the respondent answered Yes to being raped. I would go further in detail and ask her to tell her story. I would have to find a way to maintain ethical standards and to make my respondent feel comfortable with me. I could find out a lot of information if a respondent is willing to tell her story. I would keep the questions asked. Violence and threats of violence against women and men in the united states, 1994-1996 survey had a good set of questions and response options. They covered a wide variety of categories as well like race, age, gender, level of emotions, marital status etc

Rape myths have been defined as prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists (that) create a climate hostile to rape victims (Burt, 1980, p. 217) or that serve to deny and justify male sexual aggression against women (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994, p.134). Rape myths include beliefs about the causes of rape, such as beliefs that blame victims and exonerate perpetrators, but do not focus on the broad range of beliefs people hold about the causes of rape (Cowan, 1997, p.227). I studied the correlation between alcohol, rape, and consumption of alcohol. I thought that younger females who drank alcohol were more likely to be raped. I was believing a rape myth. This research is important because these findings, from using cross-tabulation, have proven a rape myth wrong. There is no correlation between being a young dumb girl who cannot handle her alcohol and being raped. There is no blame to be put on the victim. This can make a victim who has chosen to not report a rape because they might be blaming themselves because they were intoxicated and young. Rape is a very hard subject to discuss because it can spark emotions, as well as drinking is a hard subject to talk about with individuals who are underage because they are less likely to admit to drinking. Rape victims should have nothing holding them back from getting help because it is never their fault.