“Yo sí te Creo”: Alcohol-facilitated sexual violence among young women in the Spanish night-time economy

Abstract

This study investigates the factors associated with alcohol-facilitated sexual violence among young women in the Spanish night-time economy, through the analysis of twenty-six qualitative interviews with eleven young women and fifteen young men who frequent these spaces. Our results show how this type of violence originates, both from the perspective of the young women and the young men. The young women warn of the risk of sexual victimization associated with the abuse of alcohol. The young men, for their part, describe the tactics used to gain non-consensual sexual contact. These data contribute to showing how important it is for the legislation on these matters to have a gender perspective. They also add to the complex debate on the penal reform that is ongoing in Spain, in particular on sexual crimes facilitated by alcohol abuse.