A new study from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has found that more than 60 percent of sexual assaults involved drugs, and around 5 percent involved what have become known as date-rape drugs. Obtaining statistics on sexual assaults is notoriously difficult. While it's estimated that 100,000 sexual assaults are committed in the United States each year, the FBI says that number could be three times higher if all cases were reported.
Adam Negrusz, a forensic scientist at UIC, said his study found that individuals who use drugs - with or without alcohol - are at a significantly higher risk for sexual assault. "In some cases the substances are taken voluntarily by the victims, impairing their ability to make decisions," Negrusz said. "In other cases the substances are given to the victims without their knowledge, which may decrease their ability to identify a dangerous situation or to resist the perpetrator."
Negrusz's study identified two types of drug-facilitated sexual assault: presumed surreptitious drugging, or voluntary drug use by the victim. According to Negrusz, 62 percent of the subjects were found to have at least one drug in their system and 5 percent tested positive for the classic date-rape drugs. Around 4 percent of the subjects had been drugged without their knowledge.
Negrusz said the study demonstrated the need for toxicological analysis in sexual assault cases. "It also demonstrated that sexual assault complainants severely underreport their illegal drug usage. This could be corrected if the administering nursing staff was better educated on taking a truthful drug history," he added.
Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
