Oona Brooks

Failure of self regulation of UK alcohol advertising

Although the content of alcohol advertisements is restricted, Gerard Hastings and colleagues find that advertisers are still managing to appeal to young people and promote drinking

Consuming Alcohol in Bars, Pubs and Clubs: A risky freedom for young women?

Abstract Traditionally, consuming alcohol in bars, pubs, and clubs represents a masculine leisure activity at odds with conventional understandings of appropriate feminine behaviour. However, contemporary young women appear to have new freedoms to embrace this leisure activity. This paper focuses on the views of young women (18–25 years), drawing upon data from a qualitative study which explored young womens views, experiences, and behaviours in relation to their safety when socialising and consuming alcohol in bars, pubs, and clubs in Scotland. Findings from this study identify socialising and consuming alcohol in bars, pubs, and clubs as a central aspect of young womens social lives. However, for young women the consumption of alcohol in this context is also equated with risk, vulnerability, loss of control, and increased responsibility for their safety. These findings pose significant difficulties for locating womens experiences of consuming alcohol in bars, pubs, and clubs within a poststructural framework of freedom and liberation.

Interpreting Young Women’s Accounts of Drink Spiking: The Need for a Gendered Understanding of the Fear and Reality of Sexual Violence:

In recent years the public discourse around drink spiking has evolved from that of an ‘epidemic’ to an ‘urban myth’. This article examines the narratives of 35 young women interviewed in relation to the contested issue of drink spiking. The suggestion that young women invoke the drink spiking discourse to provide a feminine framework for the masculine practice of binge drinking is challenged. It is argued that, on the contrary, young women’s accounts of drink spiking are characterised by uncertainty, minimisation, self-blame and a reluctance to disclose their experiences. Further, young women’s fear of drink spiking represents a contemporary extension of the conventional gendered fear of sexual violence. Hence a gendered lens, sensitive to the fear and reality of sexual violence, is a prerequisite to a nuanced interpretation of young women’s accounts of drink spiking within the sexualised environment of the night-time economy.

Reporting rape: victim perspectives on advocacy support in the criminal justice process

Concerns about the criminal justice response to rape have prompted the development of victim advocacy services across a range of jurisdictions, yet research evidence about the nature, meaning and value of advocacy remains limited. This article draws upon a study evaluating an innovative advocacy model introduced in Scotland to assist reporting rape to the police. Findings from interviews with nine victims highlight the importance of advocacy that is independent of statutory and criminal justice agencies. However, it is argued that this does not mitigate the need for specialization or reform in the criminal justice response to rape and, further, that the distinction between advocacy at an individual and societal level represents a false dichotomy.