A new U.S study says, drug use, a main factor in two-third (about 62 per cent) of sexual assaults, and ‘date-rape’ drugs were given to nearly 5 percent of victims.
Adam Negrusz, an associate professor of forensic sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy said: ‘Some may take it as unknowingly, or voluntarily (impairing their ability to make decisions), and in others it was given without their knowledge which may decrease their ability to identify a dangerous situation or to resist the perpetrator’.Sexually assaulted victims, whom the reseacher studied (about 144) approached for help at clinics in Texas, California, Minnesota and Washington state. The average age of studied victims ranges 27, which includes 18 to 56 ages.
Negrusz said: Urine and hair specimens were collected and analyzed for about 45 drugs which have been detected in sexual assault victims or whose pharmacology could be used for drug-facilitated sexual assaults.
Nearly 62 percent of the victims contained at least one of the 45 analyzed drugs in their system – study finds. Importance of toxicological analysis in sexually assaulted case, is now in need to prohibit illegal drug usage. This study was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Justice, via the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
