Sexual assault is one of the major problems that has not only been faced by humans in the past but is also being faced by the modern society. The negatives effects of sexual assault are numerous. They range from the ones that are just confined to the victim such as physical injury to those affecting the larger community as the sense of loss and the related efforts that are aimed at aiding the victim. Sexual assault has touched on many aspects of society; the religious beliefs that we hold, our moral perspective, the social structures that we have and even our legal, and learning institutions. Sexual assault has led us to examine whether our religious institutions pass messages that can deter people from committing the same. It has led us to question the government’s ability to protect its citizens. We have been forced to consider our moral obligations toward one another, the obligation not to harm others and also the obligation to help the members of society in need. The victim of sexual assault suffers in many ways which may include but are not limited to psychological trauma and physical injury(Fisher et al , 2000).
It is because of the many negative impacts of this evil that society attempts to prevent or at least control the occurrences of sexual abuse. In order to be successful at averting abuse and having proper punitive measures against perpetrators, it is necessary that sexual assault be defined. So what is sexual assault? this term has been variously defined but it may be generally termed as any sexual words and actions done to another person that are unwanted by the person to whom the action is done or sexual actions that are harmful to the person(Fisher et al , 2000).
In drug or alcohol aided sexual assault, there are three possible situations. One situation is when only the assailant is intoxicated when the act or acts of sexual assault are committed. The other situation in which alcohol and drug aided assault occurs is when only the victim of the assault is under the influence of drugs at the time of the event. The final situation is when both the victim and the assailant are under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of assault. Although the singular form of victim and assailant are used here, there are situations where the numbers of either or both have been greater than one(Abbey et al , 1996).
The victims of sexual assault are of diverse nature as assault knows no boundaries. The victims are of any race, gender, age and political affiliation.
The situations that concern us for the purpose of this writing are the last two where the victim is under the influence of drug or alcohol. The assailant is sometimes normally responsible for the state of intoxication of the victim. The assailant may introduce drugs into the victim’s system without the victim’s knowledge or the assailant may deliberately make the victim consume alcohol excessively. In other cases the victim may have consumed alcohol or used drugs out of their own will prior to meeting the assailant (Abbey et al , 1996). The assailant normally takes advantage of the victim’s state to commit the assault. The intoxicated victim is in such a state as to negate the possibility of consent or the making of any attempt at resisting the actions done to them (Ullman et al ,2008).
There are many substances that are used during the commission of a drug assisted sexual assault.
The most common and widely used substance is alcohol which usually decreases inhibitions thereby facilitating the attacks.
Other than alcohol, some drugs are also very commonly used to facilitate the commission of the said sexual assaults. Some of the drugs that are most often implicated are soma, Rohypnol, which is a benzodiazepine, and ketamine (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009). The victim is usually rendered unconscious using benzodiazepines and other sedative hypnotics, are used as well. The effect of these drugs is that they make the victims unconscious (Fisher et al, 2000). This effect is usually quickened and made more intense by making the victim take the drugs mixed with alcohol. Some individuals may also willingly take the drugs and put themselves in a situation that makes them become victims. As these drugs have sedative properties, many of the victims of sexual assault do not normally have any memory of the commission of the act towards them. They may only have an inexplicable sense or awareness that they had been violated (Abbey et al, 1996).
Alcohol and drug aided sexual assault is a prevalent problem in the society today( U.S. Department of Justice, 2009). In an effort to deter people from committing this crime and also to bring about justice, the prosecution of suspected offenders is paramount. For any prosecution to be carried out, there must be awareness the crime was committed. In most sexual assault cases the individuals involved are normally only the assailant and the victim. As such the only person who is more likely to bring the matter to the attention of the authorities is the victim as the assailant would rarely self-incriminate if at all. The reporting of the occurrence of an assault is therefore necessary for any further action to be taken. A significant number of drug and alcohol related abuse is however rarely reported (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009). This is more so when the victim was either intoxicated out of their own free will or otherwise. There are several reasons why very few cases of sexual assault where the victim was under the influence of alcohol or other drugs or possibly a combination of both. This happens for several reasons.
One of the reasons why cases of drug or alcohol aided sexual assault are never reported is that the involvement of the drug usually occurs when the victim and the assailant both know each other. As the drug is interpreted as a sign of closeness between the victim and the assailant, the victim never labels the act as an “assault” (Abbey et al, 1996). This could happen when the drug is offered to the victim as perhaps a gift and the victim afterwards views the act as just a consequence of the enjoyment of the drug in question (Small, & Donell, 1993.). The incident that occurs between the two after consumption of the drug is however, still fundamentally sexual assault as at the time of occurrence the victim could neither have consented nor refused to engage in the act. Nonetheless the means i.e. the drug still becomes the way out for the assailant as the victim views the drug as a sign of closeness the assault notwithstanding (Abbey et al, 1996).
Another reason for none reporting of alcohol or drug aided sexual assault is the policies in the institutions where the victim is a member. A case to illustrate this is that of a college student in an institution whose policies prohibit the consumption of alcohol or any other form of substance abuse (Payne, 2008).
Many institutions of learning especially those set up by religious organizations have a zero tolerance policy to alcohol let alone hard drugs. The victim usually fears the punishment that would come when the institution learns that they engaged in drug abuse contrary to the set policies (Payne, 2008). Since reporting the incident of sexual assault necessitates the narration which would eventually bring up the issue of substance abuse, the victim opts to keep silent in order to avoid such punitive measures as expulsion. The fear of the authorities to whom the report would have otherwise been made therefore exceeds the desire to report the incident. If the sexual assault would have occurred without the involvement of drug abuse by the victim, the likelihood of the incident being reported to the appropriate authorities would have been higher. Thus the drug and alcohol policies act as a constant barrier to victims willing to report sexual assault (Abbey et al, 1996).
One other way in which the abuse or drugs or alcohol by the victim prevents the reporting of an incident of sexual assault is continual abuse of drugs after the event. It is well known that some forms of sexual assault deeply traumatize the victims. These victims sometimes respond to the trauma in ways which show depths of psychological distress. When the victim was a drug abuser prior to the sexual assault, the victim may resort to the very same drugs to escape from the pain and suffering of having experienced the assault. A victim who was not involved in substance abuse may also change behavior and abuse drugs massively after the incident. When the victim of an assault reacts in this manner to the assault before reporting the incident, the report may never be made in the end. The victim’s state of mind is such that they can not function properly to enable them to report the occurrence of the sexual assault(Abbey et al , 1996).
The assailant may also incapacitate the victim further by not only encouraging the victim to consume more drugs this obviously prevents the victim from ever reporting the incident. A sad case in question is where the victim’s life is terminated as a result of drug abuse. If a victim consumes drugs to such quantities as to cause the death of the victim, the assault will never be reported. This is more so if a significant period of time has elapsed between the time of assault and the time of demise. If no connection is made between the sexual assault and the subsequent death, it shall never be reported that the victim was assaulted. Whether the victim would have reported the incident matters not as the effect of consuming high quantities of drugs i.e. death have in effect stopped the reporting of the same (Abbey et al, 1996).
A victim of sexual assault may also fail to report because of a feeling of quilt and responsibility for what happened (Abbey et al, 1996).This is directly linked to the use of drugs or alcohol by the victim. Because of the use of alcohol on their part, the victim feels that they would have prevented the incident had they not consumed the alcohol. They also feel that they did not engage in any physical or verbal resistance and therefore blame themselves instead of blaming the assailant for the action (Abbey et al, 1996). As they feel responsible for what happened, they fail to report. Although feelings of guilt and shame are a ‘normal’ response to some forms of sexual assault, nonetheless the victims report. Failure to report can be directly attributed to alcohol consumption in this manner as in its absence the victim may have given relatively more resistance to assault. When the victim resists, they feel more anger towards the assailant than towards themselves and mat therefore report (Fisher et al, 2000). This is In contrast with alcohol or drug use by the victim, since the likelihood of engaging in any form of resistance is either reduced or completely nonexistent, the victim’s anger may be direct more towards the self. This therefore hinders the reporting of alcohol or drug aided assault.
Another way in which the use of drugs or alcohol consumption may deter the victim from reporting the assault is memory related. Drinking or drug use by the victim may lead to the perception that the sexual assault did not take place. This erroneous perception occurs even when the event of sexual assault actually occurred (Abbey et al, 1996). In a situation where both the assailant and the victim were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, both of them might not be aware of the occurrence of the assault. As such they may assume that the assault never occurred. In other circumstances, the assailant may well be aware of having committed the assault against the victim, while the victim due to the use of drugs or alcohol thinks that the abuse actually never took place. In both cases, as a consequence of drug use, the victim, having a perception that is false, may fail to report the incident. How would one report a crime that has not been committed? The assailant in an act of self preservation may never reveal to the victim the facts about the sexual assault (Ullman et al, 2008).
Another reason which is somewhat similar but different from the previous one is where because of perhaps physical evidence of assault, the victim only suspects assault. This may occur when the victim only remembers a portion of what ensured. It may occur for instance when a victim remembers only the part where along with the assailant, the two of them entered a room. With this as the last memory, the victim gains sobriety and realizes that the environment is suggestive of assault (Kramer, 1994). The victim may sense physical changes in the body such as exhaustion but may not recall the actual assault. Compelling evidence such as semen may not be present as the assailant may have been careful. In such a situation where there is only slight physical discomfort, a feeling that something happened and no recollection of events whatsoever, the victim may choose not to report. There are even cases where there is no discomfort but just the suspicion without evidence that the assault actually occurred (Schuller & Anna, 2000).
Failure to report drug assisted sexual assault may also be as a result of the fear of public perception. Many of the victims, being members of the society have come to realize that there are public attitudes towards sexual assault. The victims know that in the public eye, there is a lot of stereotyping and the victim is normally blamed so much for the incident. In the case of drug assisted sexual assault, this is especially true as there are widely held beliefs that the consumption of alcohol by a female is a sign of promiscuity (Maurer & David, 2007). The opinion that the consumption of alcohol leads to the lowering of sexual inhibitions is also prevalent in the public. Knowing this, the victim in drug assisted sexual assault will fail to report the assault as they fear that they will be blamed for the incident (Schuller & Anna, 2000).
The victims feel that the public will assume that they consented to the assault just because they had consumed alcohol at the period prior to the assault (Maurer & David , 2007). A victim of sexual assault who was sober at the time of assault may be viewed with a more sympathetic eye by the public as opposed to one who was under the influence. Further more the public has not accepted the fact that a woman can much like a man drink purely for the purpose of enjoyment (Ullman et al, 2008). The society is uncomfortable with a woman drinking and will therefore blame the victim in an attempt to maintain the held norms. The victim fearing further condemnation fails to report the sexual assault that has occurred (Kramer, 1994).
Another reason that prevents the victims of drug assisted sexual assault from reporting to the authorities is that they do not have the legal knowledge to realize that what they had experienced was sexual assault. This is so because the ‘weapon’ used by the assailant is a drug or alcohol. To the victims, since there is no physical injury, no struggle and no weapons used, the sexual assault does not fit there prototype of sexual assault (Kramer, 1994). When a victim willingly consumes alcohol and afterwards the assault occurs, the victim fails to comprehend the magnitude of what has occurred. The victim fails to report not because of prior consent but because the introduction of alcohol exploits the victims ignorance (Abbey et al, 1996).
The lack of evidence may also result in the failure on the part of the victim to report the occurrence of sexual assault to relevant authorities. How does the victim prove that the assault was actually drug assisted when there are no drugs detected in the victim’s body? There are no detections as most of the drugs that are widely used when committing acts of sexual assault are absorbed very rapidly into the victim’s body system (Bryden et al 1997). They then undergo quick metabolism and converted to substances that are usually present in both blood and urine making them undetectable by way of examination of these fluids. Victims who use drugs know that these drugs cause memory loss and are metabolized at very high speed. They also know that by the time they recover fully from the effects of drug use such as dizziness, the drugs will no longer be in there system (Maurer & David, 2007). The victims therefore know that it would be difficult for them to support any claim that drugs were used to sexually assault them. This deters them from reporting the commission of the assault on them (Bryden et al, 1997).
The use of alcohol in the commission of sexual assault leads to non-reporting because the victims sometimes identify with the assailant in terms of control of their faculties of thinking. This is normally the case when both the victim and the assailant were under the influence of alcohol (Small, & Donell, 1993). While the assailant was aware of the actions, the victim assumes that the assailant was actually unaware of what was occurring. The victim assumes that since they did not have control over their conduct during the event of sexual assault, the assailant must also have been in a similar state. The victim feels that the assailant is not to blame but rather the drug. The victim sees the assailant as a co-victim of drug abuse. With this kind of rationalization, the victim excuses the assailant who may have carefully planned the whole thing, unknown to the victim. The assailant does nothing to make the victim any wiser. In this way the use of alcohol or drugs neither ensures that an act of sexual assault is committed but is neither recognized as such nor reported (Schuller & Anna, 2000).
In the event that only words which in a sober setting would qualify as sexual assault, due to memory loss and reduced cognitive powers, the victim of verbal sexual assault fails to recognize it as such or even remember that such an assault occurred. Thus the assault is likely to go unreported (Fisher et al, 2000).
In my opinion, although it rarely happens, the use of drugs or alcohol by the victim of sexual assault may actually lead to the reporting of sexual assault. This could happen when there is concern for the change of behavior in the victim in terms of drug use. When inquiries are made by concerned parties, they may lead the victim to reveal the commission of sexual assault that they react to by consuming drugs. Another odd manner in which victim alcohol abuse may lead to reporting could be confessions made under influence. A victim who would when sober not talk about sexual assault may in a moment of bravado as a result of alcohol consumption speaks of sexual assault committed against them. Later on those who had the victim speak may approach the victim in a sober state to hear the full account. In this manner the sexual assault may be reported.
Victims who understand sexual assault properly may easily recognize it as such by the simple fact that they were not sober at the time of the event. With this kind of knowledge, the victim assured that the question of consent should not arise, reports the commission of the assault.
Conclusion
It is quite evident that use of drugs or alcohol in many ways hinders the reporting of sexual assault. In odder to prevent assault, measures should be taken to encourage victims to report the crimes so that justice can take its cause. Such measures would include exempting victims of sexual assault from punitive measures in the drug policies of institutions. Another measure could be proper counseling to suspected victims to ensure that they do not use drugs that may make them incapable of filling a report and furnishing it with information. The society should also change its perspective on women who consume alcohol. The society should learn to direct blame to the perpetrator and not to further victimize the victim. With encouragement to victims who consume drugs or alcohol, more cases of sexual assault will be reported and the society will improve as further assault will be averted.
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