Alcohol: Legal Cases
by David J. Hanson, Ph.D. Allegations of rape and other
forms of sexual assault are often based on the argument that the alleged
victim had been drinking and, therefore, was not competent to give consent
for sexual activities. Similarly, alleged perpetrators sometimes claim that
they were not responsible for their actions because they were intoxicated
and had no control over their behavior. However, there is evidence that
people are able to make reasoned judgments at higher levels of intoxication
than generally believed. Many of the effects of alcohol
are a result of our expectations that it will affect us in certain ways. We
learn these expectations from our society. For example, in those societies
in which people don’t believe that intoxication disinhibits, intoxicated
persons don’t become disinhibited. Dr. Donald Marshall has
explained that: the pharmacological effects of alcohol on human beings make
people feel different from when they haven’t imbibed. The meanings given to
this experience, i.e., how one interprets these feelings and orders his
experience, are provided by the culture in which one is a participant. If
the culture holds that imbibing alcohol produces warm feelings of community
solidarity, harmony, and camaraderie, then violence and sexual advances
will have no place (e.g., Brandes, 1979). If, on the other hand, the
cultural tradition suggests that the drinker will feel aggressive and
sexually aroused and, furthermore, will not be held accountable if he acts
upon these impulses, then aggression and overt sexual advances are likely
to result from drinking (e.g., Hamer, 1980). Thus, alcohol as a drug can be
viewed as an enabler or a facilitator of certain culturally given inebriate
states, but it cannot be seen as producing a specific response pattern
among all human beings who ingest it. Dr. Robin Room explains that
“Because intoxication is culturally regarded as causing obstreperous or
evil behavior, getting drunk indeed has these effects and, to an extent,
legitimates them; a desire to be obstreperous many thus motivate a
drunkenness episode.” “As one man in a violent offender program noted,
‘When I first came to your program I told you that I hit my wife because I
was drunk; now I realize that I drank so that I could hit her.’ He realized
that alcohol did not excuse or even explain the abuse. Instead, alcohol was
the way that he had tried to avoid responsibility for the abuse.” Dr. Scott
Hampton, a violence prevention expert, observes that in our society
“Alcohol acts as a permission slip.” Research in the US has long
found that when males are falsely led to believe that they have been
drinking alcohol, they tend to become more aggressive and sexual. And when
men and women falsely believe that they have been drinking alcohol, they
experience greater sexual arousal when watching erotica. In doing so, they
conform to societal beliefs about the effects of alcohol. Researchers at the University of
Waterloo in Ontario asked volunteers to press a button when prompted by a
computer screen. They were also instructed not to press it if a red light
also appeared. Those who were given alcohol were more likely to press the
button in spite of the red light, just as a drunk is more likely to punch
someone even if told to stop. However, when drinkers were offered a small
reward, they performed as well as sober volunteers. The researchers found
that people who have been drinking can control their behavior if they want
to. Similarly, in an experimental study conducted by Prof. Catherine Ortner
and her team of psychologists at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario,
divided male college undergraduates students into three groups: sober,
intoxicated, and a control group who received drinks flavored with alcohol
but not enough to intoxicate. It was hypothesized that the
intoxicated group would select immediate rewards over delayed, but greater,
rewards. All students were given the chance of receiving $15 at the end of
the session or $30 later. Contrary to expectations, the
intoxicated students were more likely to defer gratification and select the
$30. Thus, our common assumption that intoxication necessarily leads to
rash decisions may not be correct In the authors’ words, “alcohol does not
always increase cognitive impulsivity and may lead to more cautious decision-making
under certain conditions.” The findings reflect those of
Prof. Tara MacDonald at Queen’s University. Dr. MacDonald said the findings
support other findings that drunk people are not inherently more
irresponsible than sober people. These studies are consistent
with both experimental and cross-cultural evidence demonstrating that
intoxicated people have much more control over their behavior than is
generally recognized in our society. People have more control over
their drunken behavior than we generally recognize in Western society. For
example, the Lepcha people of the Himalayas tend to become sexually
promiscuous when intoxicated... that behavior is acceptable when drunk. But
violation of the incest taboo (which extends very far and is highly
complex) leads to punishment by certain death. No matter how drunk they
become and how promiscuous they behave, they never violate that complex
taboo. It's simple... they don't want to be executed and suffer a painful
death so they control their behavior no matter how drunk they become. In
Western societies intoxication tends to be treated as a “time out” period
during which time people can engage in otherwise unacceptable behaviors and
then later argue that they didn’t know what they were doing or that “the
alcohol made me do it." Because of this, intoxication
has often been used as an excuse for sexual aggression. But alcohol doesn’t
actually disinhibit us and doesn’t rob us of our good judgment... although
people commonly blame their unacceptable actions on it. In reality, intoxication
doesn’t make us do anything against our will and it doesn’t prevent us from
making rational decisions. Claiming so is only making a convenient
excuse for our actions. We cannot accept defendants’
claims that because of intoxication they didn’t know what they were doing,
had no control over their actions, and shouldn’t be held accountable for
their behavior. This fact is now recognized in our society. Of course not all of alcohol’s
effects are based on expectations. The substance has real physiological
effects -- it slows reaction time, it slows breathing and heart beat, it effects
perceptions of time and distance, etc. But the fact that alcohol has these
effects helps convince us that it makes us aggressive or whatever else our
society teaches us that it does. Intoxication has long been used
as an excuse for engaging in otherwise unacceptable behaviors. However, it
doesn't destroy the ability to make rational judgments and it doesn’t cause
bad behavior. Therefore, it isn't a legitimate excuse for otherwise
unacceptable actions.
This article was taken directly from Potsdam.edu/ in
order to provide an example of
dangerous situations that unnecessary
alcohol use can lead to.
Alcohol
Intoxication in Rape Allegations and Legal Defenses
Similarly, we can’t blindly accept alleged victims’ claims that they were unable
to give informed consent for sex simply because they had been drinking.
© Sarah Shirley 2010