News

Women’s College research supports suspicions of sexual assault victims who believe they were drugged

June 17, 2010

By Patricia Nicholson

New research from Women’s College Hospital supports the suspicions of sexual assault victims who believe they were drugged prior to the assault. Toxicology tests identified unexpected drugs in many of these victims, and DNA swabs found unexpected male DNA in many cases.

Earlier research led by Janice Du Mont, EdD, a scientist in the Violence and Health Research Program at the Women’s College Research Institute, found that one in five sexual assault victims believes they were drugged. In their latest study, Dr. Du Mont and her colleagues analyzed toxicology and DNA findings in people presenting at seven urban and rural sexual assault treatment centres in Ontario for suspected drug-facilitated sexual assault.

The researchers tested urine samples and/or oral, vaginal or rectal DNA swabs from 177 women and seven men who suspected they had been drugged and sexually assaulted. Toxicology tests showed that drugs, alcohol or both were present in about three-quarters of these cases. However, two-thirds of those drug findings were unexpected: the victim did not deliberately take a drug identified in their sample.

Most of the study participants provided a DNA swab, and male DNA was detected in 43 per cent of the vaginal, oral and/or rectal swabs, confirming sexual activity. However, it was unexpected in almost half of the cases in which it was found: 47 per cent of the victims whose swabs tested positive for male DNA said they had not had consensual sex in the previous week.

Urine samples were taken within 72 hours of the sexual assault, and DNA swabs were taken within either 24 hours (rectal), 48 hours (oral) or 72 hours (vaginal) of the assault. In male victims, the DNA analysis searched for two distinct male DNA profiles.

The findings were time-dependent, with higher detection rates for alcohol and drugs within 24 hours of the suspected assault.

‘If you suspect drug-facilitated sexual assault, go to your local sexual assault treatment centre or emergency department as soon as possible,’ says study co-author Sheila Macdonald, provincial co-ordinator of Ontario Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Centres. ‘Our study confirms that there is a higher chance of identifying drugs and male DNA the sooner a victim is tested.’

Drugs that were not taken voluntarily that were identified in toxicology screenings included cannabinoids, cocaine, amphetamines, MDMA, ketamine and GHB. Rohypnol, which has received a lot of media attention as a ‘date-rape’ drug, was not found in any of the toxicology samples.

Dr. Du Mont stressed that drug-facilitated sexual assault is not limited to intentionally drugging someone.

‘It includes any kind of sexual activity with someone who is not capable of consenting due to the effects of alcohol or drugs,’ she explained, adding that it doesn’t matter whether the drugs or alcohol were voluntarily consumed.

Many of the women in the study (86 per cent) had voluntary consumed alcohol prior to being assaulted. Dr. Du Mont noted that it’s important to know that voluntarily drinking alcohol or using drugs can make someone more vulnerable to drug-facilitated sexual assault: it can make it easier for someone to slip more alcohol or drugs, or a different drug, into a drink, and it can also intensify the effects of any drugs taken involuntarily.

However, she also said that it’s time to broaden the message from just cautioning women about potential dangers for drug-facilitated sexual assault.

‘It’s time to take a more community-based approach to prevention,’ she said. ‘That means if you see a friend being plied with alcohol, step in. That means telling your male buddy that it’s not cool to ply a woman with alcohol in the hopes of having sex with her later. That’s drug-facilitated sexual assault, and it’s a crime.’

The study appears in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine.

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