“She Should be Smart Enough To Know, Hey, These Things Can Happen”: Identifying Men’s Perceptions, Attitudes and Beliefs About Sexual Aggression Toward Women in Drinking Venues and The Implications for Prevention

Sexual aggression (SA) by men toward women, including harassment and unwanted sexual touching, is ubiquitous in drinking venues. Focus groups with 38 male volunteers aged 19-26 were used to articulate men’s perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs (PABs) related to SA in drinking venues for future development of a comprehensive questionnaire. Three cross-cutting themes relevant to prevention emerged from discussions structured using a 6-dimensional theoretical model: drinking venues culture with normative acceptance of SA as harmless fun, gender scripts that hold female targets responsible for SA, and alcohol attributions that reduce blame for intoxicated men perpetrators and increase blame for women targets.