How college women protect themselves from sexual assault, with or without substances

This qualitative study examined how college women perceive and resist sexual assault risk, with particular attention to situations involving alcohol and cannabis. The research surveyed 332 college women, with over half reporting they had experienced or been at risk of sexual assault. Among those who described a specific incident (n=125), the findings reveal that women identify risk through multiple cues: perpetrator behaviors (76%) such as unwanted touching, environmental factors (41.6%) like isolation, and internal signals (28.8%) based on discomfort or past experiences. Women demonstrated agency by employing multiple resistance tactics in 31.3% of cases, most commonly through non-forceful physical means (48%) such as fleeing or moving away from the threat.

A significant finding is that 52.4% of situations involved alcohol and/or cannabis use, with alcohol being more commonly involved. The research reveals that women's risk perception and resistance strategies varied based on substance use patterns—indicating that substance involvement doesn't uniformly impair women's ability to recognize danger or take protective action. This nuanced finding challenges assumptions that substance use universally prevents resistance; instead, women demonstrated varied but meaningful protective responses even when substances were present. The study highlights that many college women actively resist sexual assault threats through deliberate actions, and understanding these real-world resistance patterns—especially in substance-involved contexts—can inform better safety education and support strategies.

The broader public health implications suggest that substance awareness programs should acknowledge women's actual protective capabilities rather than focusing solely on risk. This research indicates that recognizing risk and taking action are not binary outcomes eliminated by substance use, but rather complex behaviors that vary significantly across individuals and situations. For college health professionals and safety advocates, these findings support more sophisticated, evidence-based approaches to sexual assault prevention that account for the reality of how women actually perceive and respond to threats.