Factors associated with suspected drug-facilitated sexual assault

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a growing number of unconfirmed reports of assailants surreptitiously using prescription and nonprescription drugs to induce disinhibition, sedation and amnesia to facilitate rape. 1 This type of victimization is most commonly referred to as drug-facilitated sexual assault. Although flunitrazepam, in particular, has been maligned as a "date rape drug," 2 many other easily accessible substances have reportedly been used to facilitate sexual assault, including alcohol and alprazolam, chloral hydrate, gamma-hydroxybutyrate, ketamine, lorazepam, ziploclone and zolpidem. 1,3 Few studies have systematically measured the occurrence of drug-facilitated sexual assault. Because there is no agreedupon definition of the phenomenon, 4 comparisons across studies are difficult. In a large population-based telephone survey focused on rape in the United States, 2.3% of adult women reported that they had been deliberately incapacitated with drugs or alcohol and sexually assaulted. 5 According to the 2001 British Crime Survey, among adult female victims of rape, 5.0% reported that they had been "drugged in some way."6 Rates of suspected drug-facilitated sexual assault derived from chart reviews of sexual assault victims presenting to specialized sexual assault services have ranged from 6.3% to 17.5%. 1,[7][8][9] One such study demonstrated that the incidence of hospital-reported drug-facilitated sexual assault had shown a marked and continuing increase since 1999. 10Little is known about the victims of drug-facilitated sexual assault and how they may differ from victims of other forms of sexual assault. 1,5 In a retrospective analysis of sexual assaults in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, McGregor and colleagues 1 found that, compared with other victims, those who suspected that they had been drugged waited longer before presenting to a hospital sexual assault service. In addition, this group had a lower occurrence of genital and extragenital injuries. Women aged 15-19 years had the highest risk of experiencing this type of sexual assault.10 Testa and colleagues, 11 working in the United States, compared 48 incidents of rape while incapacitated with 65 other rape incidents. They found that rapes involving incapacitation were less likely than other types of rape to result in injury and were also less likely to involve a perpetrator with whom the victim had had previous sexual intercourse. Rapes involving incapacitation were more likely to have occurred following time spent CMAJ ResearchBackground: There has been little systematic investigation of widespread reports of drugging and sexual assault. We sought to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with suspected drug-facilitated sexual assault. Methods:Between June 2005 and March 2007, a total of 977 consecutive sexual assault victims underwent screening for suspected drugging at 7 hospital-based sexual assault treatment centres. We defined victims of drugfacilitated sexual assault as those who presented to a centre within ab...

Care of the Adolescent After an Acute Sexual Assault

“…In a Canadian study by Du Mont et al of 184 individuals 16 years and older who met the criteria for DFSA, 86% had consumed alcohol before the assault, and one-quarter of the sample had used over-the-counter prescription or street drugs in the 72 hours before the test collection. 35,36 Unexpected (ie, no known history of drug exposure to the specific drug) positive toxicology results were found in 49% of the suspected DFSA cases; results showed cannabinoids (40%) and cocaine (32%) most frequently. Similar individual studies and systematic reviews 37 from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and other countries have reported that less than 2% of cases of DFSA are associated with common date rape drugs.…”

Drug-facilitated sexual assault in Ontario, Canada: Toxicological and DNA findings

“…Similarly, a list of seven criteria was developed to identify those who thought they had been sexually assaulted, but were unable to recall details (e.g., woke unclothed or to find clothing in disarray; unexplained body fluids such as semen found on body; unexplained anogenital injuries). For this study, a case was defined as a person who reported at least one valid reason for suspecting having been drugged and at least one reason for suspecting having been sexually assaulted (see 16 for more details).…”

Willingness to Report Sexual Offenses to the Police in Ghana

“…Available studies have concentrated on Western countries (see Du Mont et al, 2009;Fisher, Daigle, Cullen, & Turner, 2003;Pino & Meier, 1999;Ruback, Menard, Outlaw, & Shaffer, 1999;Thompson, Sitterle, Clay, & Kingree, 2007;Wolitzky-Taylor et al, 2011), and non-Western societies have received limited attention. Ghana, a developing postcolonial society, is no exception to this academic neglect.…”