Women in bars more prone to sexual aggression

Sexual assault continued to be a pervasive problem in society and inside a bar or pub and sexual aggression against women has become a common experience, revealed a study.

The bar-based sexual aggression often reflects intentional sexual invasiveness and unwanted persistence rather than misperceptions in sexual advances.

"Bar-based aggression is almost certainly more likely to involve people who do not know each other very well or at all," said Kate Graham, a senior scientist at the centre for addiction and mental health at the University of Toronto.

In the bar, the perpetrators might be more likely to dehumanise the targeted woman and might lead them to feel more 'protected'.

Graham and her colleagues went through narrative descriptions and quantitative data for 1,057 incidents of aggression observed during 1,334 visits to 118 large capacity bars or clubs in Toronto.

Of the total observed incidents, 258 (24.4 percent) included sexual aggression.

"Given the large number of young people who socialise together in bars, it is not surprising that a great deal of sexual assault occurs in bars," said Jeanette Norris, a senior research scientist at the University of Washington.

Graham said, "If a stranger came up to a woman, grabbed her around the waist, and rubbed his groin against her in a university cafeteria or on a subway, she would probably call the police. In the bar, the woman just tries to get away from him."

"We found that intentional sexual aggression is done for the gratification of the person making the overture or for the amusement of his friends," said Graham.

Norris said, "For instance, attacking women who are defenceless makes it less likely that a perpetrator would be apprehended or experience any consequences as a result of his actions. These men are the ultimate opportunists."

Other research has shown that women who drink are often seen as more sexually available than women who do not drink.

A necessary component of this approach is to train staff to intervene and force the perpetrator to leave.

Men have to be given a clear message that there would be consequences for this type of behaviour if men are expected to change, said the study, to be published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.