New York, Sep 7 (IANS): Female college students who have been victims of sexual assault are at a much higher risk of becoming victims again, says a study.

They were, in fact, three times more likely than their peers to experience severe sexual victimisation the following year, the findings of the US-based study showed.

Severe sexual victimisation includes rape, attempted rape and incapacitated rape, where a victim is too intoxicated from drugs or alcohol to provide consent.

"Initially, we were attempting to see if victimisation increased drinking, and if drinking then increased future risk," said the study's principal investigator Kathleen Parks, senior research scientist from the University at Buffalo in the US.

"Instead, we found that the biggest predictor of future victimisation is not drinking, but past victimisation," Parks added.

For the study, the researchers followed nearly 1,000 college women, most of ages between 18 to 21, over a five-year period, studying their drinking habits and experiences of severe physical and sexual assault.

The study appeared online in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.