Altus Air Force Base News

 

SAAM speaker presents "Drunk sex or Date Rape?"

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kenneth W. Norman
  • 97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Altus Airmen had a rare opportunity to play jury and judge for a mock sexual assault case during a presentation that kicked off this year's Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Brett Sokolow, National Center for Higher Education managing partner and attorney, gave a presentation about sexual assault and its consequences at the base theater here March 31.

Mr. Sokolow's presentation is an interactive exercise where the audience is presented the information of a trial based on a real sexual assault case. Once Mr. Sokolow has presented all of the information, he answers questions about the case. After the questions have been answered, the audience must vote - guilty or not guilty. When the voting is over the audience must discuss why they voted the way they did and then Mr. Sokolow reveals the real outcome of the trial.

"What this presentation is designed to do is to get people thinking critically about their decisions - how they impact themselves, how they impact other people and to challenge a norm where drunk sex is OK," Mr. Sokolow said. "Sometimes drunk sex is OK, if both parties know what they are doing and they are willing to do it, but sometimes it is going to cross a line and a lot of people ask 'where is that line?' This presentation is about giving people a better ability to distinguish what is too far."

The presentation makes the audience think about how much alcohol is too much before drunken sex turns into date rape.

"This is the type of thing that is happening and we need to inform people about the consequences when they decide to do these things," said Ms. Cheryl Jones, Sexual Assault Response Coordinator.

Mr. Sokolow has been giving this presentation for 13 years.

"This is very important information - especially the way our culture is now," Ms. Jones said. "We do our trainings and hear some of the same arguments that were brought up in the presentation, but we don't have the affect of knowing what the outcome would be in a jury trial."

The 2010 Prevalence/Incidence Survey of Sexual Assault in the Air Force - also known as the Gallup survey - was used to measure the prevalence and incidence of sexual assault in the Air Force. Gallup conducted the confidential web-based survey from July-August 2010. The primary goal of this survey was to estimate the incidence and prevalence of sexual assault among its ranks. The objective was to establish the baseline for a true statistical occurrence of sexual assault within the Air Force.

According to the Gallup survey, the projected past year incidence rate of sexual assault among Airmen while on active duty or as a cadet at the Air Force Academy is 3.4 percent for women and 0.5 percent for men. This equates to 2,143 women and 1,355 men who have been assaulted within the past year. About 19 percent of today's female Airmen and 2 percent of today's male Airmen reporting being the victim of sexual assault at some point while they have been in the Air Force, equivalent to 11,986 women and 5,553 men.

The Gallup survey also stated that many assaults were committed or attempted while victims were asleep or unconscious or after the victim used drugs or other intoxicants. However, it is unclear if the unconsciousness was related to usage of drugs or other intoxicants, as some of the open-ended comments received at the end of the survey indicated the victim may have feared admitting drinking underage.

"If you are in a situation where you're in doubt about your partner's condition, don't make the assumption that it's a green light, make the assumption it is a red one," said Mr. Sokolow. "In other words don't take the risk for both yourself and for them if you're not really clear."

For more information, contact Sexual Assault Prevention Response at 481-7428.

If it is an emergency, call the 24/7 on-call phone at 580-649-0656.