Date rape

"Date rape", often referred to as “acquaintance rape”, is an assault or attempted assault usually committed by a new acquaintance involving sexual intercourse without mutual consent.


 * The term "date rape" is widely used but can be misleading because the person who commits the crime might not be dating the victim. Rather, it could be an acquaintance or stranger.

Drug-facilitated date rape
Drug-facilitated date rape is the use of drugs to assist the attacker in a rape. The drug can be any substance that is physical or mind altering.

Drug facilitated sexual assault (DFSA), which is considered an umbrella term for crimes such as drug-facilitated date rape, differs from many rapes in that it is not typically a crime of physical violence but rather of sexual hedonism and entitlement.

Rohypnol (trade name for Flunitrazepam), is commonly known as a “club drug” because it is usually used in dance clubs and raves. Street names include: Circles, Forget Pill, LA Rochas, Lunch Money, Mexican Valium, Mind Erasers, Roach, Roopies, Roofies, R-2, Roches Dos, Rope, Rophies, Rapeies, Stupifi, Shays, etc.

Ketamine is commonly known as: Black Hole, Bump, Cat Valium, Green, Jet, K, Kit Kat, Psychedelic heroin, Purple, Special K, Super Acid, Keller, Super C, etc.

GBL or GHB are popular because "Victims may not be aware that they ingested a drug at all. GHB and its analogues are invisible when dissolved in water, and are odorless. They are somewhat salty tasting, but are indiscernible when dissolved in beverages such as sodas, liquor, or beer." Also, GBL can pass through the skin so the flavor is irrelevant. In some cases, GBL has been allegedly administered by applying it to jewelry that is designed to break (presumably to prevent overdose).

In 2001, Dr. Michael Welner published pioneering research on the typology of drug-facilitated rapists. The typology has since been cited and used by law enforcement and mental health professionals for distinguishing different perpetrators, their personalities, and their psychological makeup.

The Typology of Drug facilitated sexual assault Includes

•Setting: Typology is best distinguished by the setting in which the attack takes place (e.g. Workplace Setting, Healthcare Setting or Social Setting).

•Accomplices and Conspiracies: There may be multiple perpetrators who conspire to commit the crime. Particularly in social settings, confirmed cases have involved male and female couple collaborators, siblings and friends.

•Intrafamilial DFSA: Many intrafamilial DFSA's often go unreported. Typically there is a power differential that prevent victims from speaking out.

•Male-on-male Offenses: Such cases occur nearly exclusively in social or school settings. Often the crime reflects the perpetrators conflicted feelings about private same-sex thought and desires.

•Sexual Deviance or Sexual Hunters: This group often includes those who are incompetent at finding sexual partners and those who have sexual fantasies of dominance.

United States
In 1996, President Clinton signed the Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act. This act punishes for the use of the drug called Rohypnol. Four years later, the president signed another legislation banning GHB.

People who use date rape drugs have a risk of up to an additional 20 years in prison. Any possession of Rohypnol, even if there is no intent of using it, has a sentence of up to three years in prison. Every state has laws pertaining to rape.

Indiana has a statute which makes the offense a Class A felony if "the commission of the offense is facilitated by furnishing the victim, without the victim's knowledge, with a drug ... or a controlled substance ... or knowing that the victim was furnished with the drug or controlled substance without the victim's knowledge." (see drink spiking)

Social issues
Understanding date rape as a social issue is very difficult due to conceptual differences about even what constitutes "rape". It both reflects and is reflected by political and sociological differences in ways of viewing gender roles, personal responsibility, and social norms. Debates on this topic often reflect polarized opinions in which the points of argument are considered as "radical feminism" or "misogynistic".

Similarly, institutional responses, including efforts in the criminal justice system have been difficult to establish. Colleges and Universities, settings in which date rape is considered a common problem, have attempted to develop policies and guidelines for prevention and discipline that can be unwieldy and unenforceable. While criminal prosecution of so-called "stranger rape" (e.g. no pre-existing relationship, use of physical force or of a weapon) is sufficiently difficult, as the statistics regarding attitudes included above bear out, a situation considered "date rape" can be even more difficult if not impossible.

This is due to the highly subjective components involved in determining consent, and conscious intention, as well as attitudes toward gender, toward sexuality, and individual responsibility. Further, in a society that is both "obsessed" with but uncomfortable with sex and sexuality, direct communication is too frequently lacking, so that expectations and interpretations vary drastically between the potential perpetrator and the potential victim. Add socially sanctioned use of alcohol (over 80% of date rapes included the use of alcohol by at least one partner, while over 50% involved the use by both partners) and the likelihood of such miscommunication goes even higher.

In 1998 the issue of date rape was raised in the United Kingdom when the popular soap-opera Brookside featured a story in which character Nikki Shadwick was date raped. The issue of date rape was lesser known at the time. The following year the first charity of victims of date rape was established in the United Kingdom.