The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Nearly a third of women have been taken advantage of, report finds
Almost a third of women who took part in a global drug survey reported being taken advantage of sexually while drunk or high.
The majority of the incidents took place in a private home by someone known to the person, the 2019 survey found.
Some 29.3% of women said they had been taken advantage of, with 8% saying it had taken place in the last 12 months.
Almost all respondents who said this happened within the previous year did not report the incident to police, with 43% failing to because they felt partly responsible.
Sex and drugs researcher Alexandra Aldridge said people can feel reluctant to use the words sexual assault because they may believe their experience is less valid if they are intoxicated.
The Royal Holloway PhD student, 26, said: “Our findings really show that we need to move away from victim blaming – telling women to change their behaviour clearly can only go so far in preventing sexual assaults.
“Clearly people are feeling responsible in some way for their actions, and I think a lot of people who experience harassment or being taken advantage of can really relate to that.
“‘To what extent does my experience count as sexual assault when I have these feelings of guilt and responsibility?’ – that definitely acts as a huge barrier to reporting.”
Researchers based in London questioned more than 120,000 people across the world between October 29 and December 30 last year.
Overall, 18% of men, women and people who identified as a different gender who took part said they had been taken advantage of while intoxicated.
The incidents involved unwanted kissing, oral sex, sexual touching and penetration.
Almost nine in 10 of the encounters in the last year involved alcohol (87.8%), with 35.5% involving alcohol and drugs, with cannabis being the most common.
Two-thirds took place in a private house, while 69.5% involved someone they knew in some capacity.