According to a study that examined instances of sexual assault on college campuses, researchers came to the conclusion that alcohol consumption by the perpetrator and/or the victim increases the likelihood of acquaintance sexual assault occurring through multiple pathways. Further, they concluded that alcohol’s psychological, cognitive and motor effects contribute to sexual assault.
This can be for multiple reasons. For example, a person who is drunk may have given consent to another drunk person but simply been unable to remember it. (It should be noted that whether consent is possible while intoxicated is a legal gray area in many cases.) Another reason is that alleged perpetrators may not be thinking clearly and may have misunderstood whether consent was given.
Further, studies have shown that alcohol enhances the misperception of sexual intent, sexual behavior, peer pressure, and aggression, while simultaneously decreasing one’s ability to resist and ability to rectify misperceptions. In other words, alcohol does exactly what we all know: it impairs both parties and muddies the waters of consent.