“This idea that bad judgment is why sexual assault occurs is not true,” says Laura Dunn, a campus rape survivor and legal advocate through the group SurvJustice. “We need to be asking the question: How should laws be addressing the issue of alcohol, rather than allowing it to be a cause. Whether we like it or not, alcohol is part of college campus. In Europe, kids grow up with wine drinking as part of life in the home. In America, we send them off to school when they are 17-18 and say, ‘See ya later, hope you can understand what drinking is all about”¦’ ”
But other experts say that lingering questions regarding substance abuse on campus should not overshadow the purpose of California’s new law.
“Underage drinking is a small part of this puzzle, but it has overshadowed the basic idea that this new law is trying to address that ‘yes means yes,’ ” says Michele Delaney, professor of law and associate dean for faculty research at the Villanova School of Law. “So the debate about underage drinking plays into the blurred lines that our society has now allowed to occur.”