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Drug-facilitated sexual assaults (DFSA): a serious underestimated issue
F P Busardò1, M R Varì, A di Trana
1Department of Excellence of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, University "Politecnica delle Marche", Ancona, Italy. fra.busardo@libero.it.
European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences
|December 21, 2019
Summary
Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) involves incapacitating substances like GHB and flunitrazepam. Many assaults go unreported due to victim reluctance and rapid drug metabolism, hindering accurate data collection on these "rape drugs".
Area of Science:
- Forensic Toxicology
- Criminology
- Public Health
Background:
- Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) involves using substances to incapacitate victims for nonconsensual sexual acts.
- Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and flunitrazepam are identified as prevalent
- date rape drugs
- though numerous other substances can be employed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the scope of drug-facilitated sexual assaults.
- To identify common drugs used in DFSA.
- To examine reporting challenges and international control measures.
Main Methods:
- A comprehensive literature search was conducted across multidisciplinary databases.
- Keywords included "drug-facilitated sexual assault", "chemical submission", "date rape", "rape drugs", and "drink-spiking".
- Institutional websites were searched for relevant international agency reports.
Main Results:
- Accurate DFSA statistics are unavailable, despite increasing reports.
- Underreporting is significant due to victim reluctance, memory impairment, and rapid drug metabolism.
- Commonly used drugs are often undetectable in standard screenings.
Conclusions:
- Most DFSA substances, excluding alcohol, are internationally controlled.
- Several psychotropic substances and antihistamines lack international control, facilitating illicit trafficking.
- The absence of comprehensive international control impedes accurate data acquisition on DFSA.
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