Understanding and Addressing Alcohol and Sexual Violence: We Have Made Progress but Still Have Miles to Go

Alcohol misuse (AM) and sexual violence (SV) are long-standing public health problems that were addressed in the 2021 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation titled Alcohol and Sexual Violence. This chapter reviews each symposium chapter’s contributions to the SV-AM prevention literature and implications for research. We document prevalence of these problems and their devastating consequences for individuals and society. We describe other research findings, gaps in research, and ideas that can improve SV research and policy. These include the role of heavy alcohol use in SV, alcohol-related black outs in SV cases, and the role of sexual scripts in alcohol-involved SV. We discuss sexual standards (i.e., personal attitudes and cultural norms about what sexual behaviors are appropriate) and make the case that SV prevention approaches should encourage examination of personal sexual standards and honest communication about standards with potential sexual partners. We make recommendations for research, policy changes, and interventions for alcohol-involved SV that include ways to enhance reporting, investigation, and adjudication of SV cases. We conclude that SV research is severely underfunded and propose to rightsize its research portfolio by establishing the National Sexual Violence Research Institute with $42 million per year in dedicated funding.