NCJ Number
200568
Date Published
May 2003
Length
46 pages
Annotation
This manual provides comprehensive, current information on the drugs most often implicated in the commission of drug-facilitated sexual assault and recommends practices for first responders -- law enforcement or medical personnel -- who investigate or attend to a suspected drug-facilitated sexual assault.
Abstract
The manual first defines a "drug-facilitated sexual assault" as "a sexual assault facilitated by the use of an anesthesia-type drug, which when administered to a victim renders the victim physically incapacitated or helpless and thus incapable of giving or not giving consent." Victims may be unconscious during all or parts of the sexual assault or have anterograde amnesia upon gaining consciousness, similar to the effects of a surgery patient coming out of anesthesia. Most of the drugs typically used in the commission of sexual assaults are rapidly absorbed and metabolized by the body, thereby rendering them undetectable in routine urine and blood drug screenings. The manual profiles the drugs commonly used in the commission of drug-facilitated sexual assaults. The drugs profiled are GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate); Rohypnol (flunitrazepam); Ketamine; and Soma (carisoprodol). For each of these drugs, information is provided on background, user pattern, sexual assault pattern, and effects. The next section of the manual provides guidelines for responding to a victim of drug-facilitated sexual assault. Topics addressed include what police investigators should and should not do, victim interviewing, other interviews, the collection and preservation of evidence, recommended practices for medical personnel, and victims' rights. The final section of the manual contains summaries of Federal laws and State statutes that are directly applicable to drug-facilitated sexual assault causes. A supplemental photo index depicts the packaging, pills, and capsules of the drugs that may be used in sexual assaults.