Drug-facilitated sexual assault
[3] As with other types of rape, a DFSA is a crime of physical violence, and can be a result of sexual hedonism and entitlement.
[4] Sexual assaults of men and women who have voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs is common and not new, being mentioned in the 1938 film Pygmalion.
[5][6] The female victim, participating in alcoholic drinks, whether coerced or in a mutually relaxed environment, would find herself suddenly losing awareness of her surroundings.
Upon regaining consciousness, hours later, she may be in a different location, with signs of having been sexually interfered with, such as missing or disarranged clothing, bruises, the presence of semen, or vaginal or anal soreness.
[9] Male-on-male DFSAs occur almost exclusively in social or school settings, such as men raping foster sons, men picking up hitchhikers, and sadomasochistic killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy who immobilized their victims through sedation before sexually assaulting and murdering them.
Experts believe that this is at least partially why individuals (specifically women) with a history of sexual violence in their life are particularly vulnerable to PFSA.
[4]: 454–457 There is no evidence to suggest that DFSA perpetrators network among each other, either online or off, although they can sometimes be found on sites where the effects of recreational drugs are discussed.
[2] One study of general population American women who believed they were victims of DFSAs found 81% knew the alleged perpetrator before the rape.
[17] If reported, the presence of date rape drugs can be detected in various ways after the event - notably through urine samples (for some days) and in the hair (for weeks or even months).
Any attribution or classification is conjecture without specialized drug toxocology which is often unavailable to victims within the short time frame when viable testing of samples has historically been available.
A similar study of 2,003 urine samples of victims of suspected DFSAs found less than 2% tested positive for Rohypnol or GHB.
[21] A three-year study in the UK found two percent of 1,014 rape victims had sedatives detected in their urine 12 hours after the assault.
[22][23] A 2009 Australian study found that of 97 instances of patients admitted to hospital believing their drinks might have been spiked, tests were unable to identify a single case where a sedative drug was likely to have been illegally placed in a drink in a pub or nightclub, with 9 plausible cases from within the study.
[7][31][32] Ideally the first urine the victim produces after the assault will be tested for the presence of drugs: if possible, they should collect it into a clean container to give to medical authorities.
Medical authorities may also take samples of the victim's blood, and especially their hair, as this can show evidence for weeks or months, rather than days.
[33][34] In the United States, law enforcement agencies will generally pay for the drug testing if it is requested by them as part of a rape kit.
Because many DFSA victims experience anterograde amnesia as a result of the drugs they were given, they are unable to understand or describe what happened to them.
[29] Because the perpetrator immobilized the victim using drugs, they were unable to attempt to physically defend themselves, which means there will be no evidence such as fingernail scrapings, scratches or bite marks.
