Drug Facilitated Sexual Violence & Other Crimes
What is Drug Facilitated Sexual Violence & Other Crimes?
Drug facilitated crimes, particularly sexual violence, commonly happens in college settings when someone uses a predatory drug to “spike” someone’s drink. A predatory drug can be ANY substance that is used intentionally to impair you or to prohibit you from asserting yourself.
Who is at risk?
Everyone is at risk. Although on college campuses, more women report being slipped a drug and raped, men have also reported being drugged and raped. Even more common for men is that they are drugged (so that they pass out, and/or are unaware of their surroundings) by someone that intends to drug and rape the woman they are with. Men have also been drugged and robbed.
What are These Drugs?
Alcohol is the number one most common drug used by perpetrators of sexual violence to incapacitate people. We often see this on campus when upper-classmen recruit as many first-year women as possible to come to their parties where they encourage/force/coerce women to drink a lot of alcohol so that they can have “sex” with them.
In recent years, a new kind of rape threat has appeared at parties, clubs, and on college campuses – so called “predator” or “date rape drugs.” These drugs are any substance that renders you incapable of saying no or asserting yourself. This includes alcohol, marijuana, or other street drugs; designer or club drugs such as Ecstasy; over the counter medications like sleeping pills or antihistamines; even cold medicine. However, the newest and most common drugs that we hear about are GHB, Ketamin, and Rohypnol. Although these drugs are often ingested recreationally, people intending to rape someone also use them. These drugs are very difficult to detect because they leave your system very quickly and often times, because of the blackout effect, by the time a survivor has put the pieces together of their night and realized that they were raped and drugged, the drugs may have already left their system.*
*If this is the case and you decide to go to the hospital and/or call the police, it can be very helpful for you to bring the cup that you used and/or a sample of the liquid that you ingested. Traces of the drug can still be tested in these forms.
What Do These Drugs Feels Like?
Many survivors describe waking up the next morning “not feeling right.” They often times cannot account for blocks of time from the night before, and don’t feel right physically. They may describe feeling dizzy, shaky, or in a dream-like state, and experiencing stomach pains and/or vomiting. For true stories from survivors, visit: http://www.sa.sc.edu/wellness/pdraend.html
Additional Information
