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Drink spiking - Introduction |
Throughout Britain incidents of drink spiking are growing. This crime can be divided into a number of different motives. One is to incapacitate the victim, rendering them incapable and leaving them open to robbery, cash, credit cards, mobile phones and passports being the main targets. Other reasons also include revenge, a misguided sense of humour and sheer maliciousness.
However one of the most evil reasons for drink spiking is to facilitate drug assisted rape and sexual abuse (DFSA). In these cases three main classifications of drugs are used, drugs that lower resistance and reduce a persons inhibitions, leaving them susceptible to the advances of a rapist.
Despite many different preventative measures and inventions coming onto the market we believe that the only way to fight drink spiking is to educate the general public with awareness campaigns that will instigate safe drinking policies for individuals and parties and for these practices to be supported by the owners and managers of pubs, bars, clubs, restaurants in addition to City Safe Projects, the police, DHSS employees and other public safety organisations.
However it must always be remembered that it is up to the individual to drink sensibly and not put themselves at risk.
Due to the nature of the crime itself, it is very difficult to determine whether someone has been drugged and sexually assaulted. Due to the memory loss that can occur, the victims themselves are often unsure. It is also thought that this can cause serious under-reporting of this crime as victims may assume that they just had too much to drink and therefore believe themselves responsible.
Investigators should also be aware about false allegations of this crime by people wishing to excuse mistakes for actions they may have done when intoxicated with alcohol. This is not easy to overcome and is, to a great degree, down to the discretion of the investigator and the credibility of the victim. Increased knowledge of the crime and the effects of these drugs can, however, help make the investigators decision more informed.
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