An approximation to the identification of contexts, experiences, and profiles of victims of drug-facilitated sexual assaults.

This study advances on overcoming a bias limiting the forensic cases studies of drug-facilitated sexual assaults: a narrow study focus, restricted to assaults affecting young women in leisure contexts related to nightlife, party culture, and dating. A new working framework is applied to analyse data from cases received in the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (Madrid, Spain) over the six years between 2012 and 2017. The work throws light on non-previously described contexts, experiences, and profiles of victims, including domestic cohabitation, labour, education, healthcare, women trafficking, and the daily life of people with intellectual disabilities.

An ecological working framework as a new model for understanding and preventing the victimization of women by drug-facilitated sexual assault.

An innovative approach towards the holistic and multidisciplinary study of the victimization of women by drug-facilitated sexual assault has been developed. This phenomenon constitutes a significant problem given the narrowing of the gender gap in drug use over the last few decades and the widespread presence of psychoactive substances worldwide. As violence against women and drug misuse intersect in this phenomenon, this intersectional nature emphasizes the need for a novel approach that enables us to go beyond the studies carried out to date. Consequently, a multidimensional strategy incorporating a gender-sensitive approach has been implemented. The study was aligned with approaches recommended by international authorities concerning sustainable development, thus meeting current global challenges. Furthermore, the study was structured based on an ecological model divided into multiple influence levels and integrating the triangular theory of violence. As a result, a new ecological working framework was built as a multilevel platform useful for understanding and preventing the victimization of women by drug-facilitated sexual assault.

Increasing awareness of the severity of female victimization by opportunistic drug-facilitated sexual assault: A new viewpoint.

The victimization of women by opportunistic drug-facilitated sexual assault in leisure contexts was studied in this work by applying a novel approximation. A multifocal analytical strategy based on an intersectional gender-sensitive approach was used to analyse the evidence coming from both forensic case studies and contextual studies about sexual interrelation and drug use. The process of victimization comprises social changes affecting consumption patterns and sexual interaction, intersecting in the hegemonic recreational nightlife model. However, victims experience a range of situations that make it difficult for them to self-acknowledge themselves as such. Widespread myths about the victimization process add to the social questioning faced by victims, stemming from gender-based double standards which condition the expected female behaviors regarding the use of drugs and sexual interaction. The victims usually experience amnesia, lack of injuries and emotional harm, which make difficult the self-acknowledgement as a victim of sexual assault and the reporting of the episode suffered. Consequently, it is an urgent public health need to implement a new viewpoint about the victimization of women by opportunistic drug-facilitated sexual assault in leisure contexts, able to increase awareness of the severity of this form of sexual violence. Society must recognize the existence of this problem within itself to help victims to acknowledge themselves as such, lodge a complaint and seek adequate help. The lack of this social support feeds the perpetuation of the victimization process, which exacerbates the risk of locking victims into spirals of cyclical re-victimization and favors both the underreporting as well as inadequate coping strategies. In addition to focusing on the need to increase awareness of the severity of female victimization by opportunistic drug-facilitated sexual assault in leisure contexts, other recommendations include the use of the term "take advantage", the development of specific criminal approaches, and the in-depth knowledge of the phenomenon via victimization surveys. These steps are necessary for developing well-targeted and evidence-based preventive measures consistent-with-reality.

[Suspicion of chemical submission in older subjects attending a hospital emergency department]. / Sospecha de sumisión química en sujetos mayores atendidos en un servicio de urgencias hospitalario.

Chemical Submission (CS) is considered a danger to health and a form of violence. There are different forms of proactive CS (involuntary consumption of psychoactive substances) and opportunistic CS (voluntary consumption), with criminal intent, usually theft, submission, or sexual assault. The objective of this work is to describe the characteristics of cases of suspected CS in adults older than 65 years treated in the Emergency Department of the San Carlos Clinical Hospital and the results of the toxicological analysis performed by the INTCF in Madrid (April 1, 2015-2019). There were 12 (8%) cases of suspected CS, with a mean age of 75 (SD 8) years, of which 8 (66.7%) men, with two different profiles, all associated with theft, and in 3 (25%) possible sexual assault. In 9 (75%) cases, benzodiazepines and / or usual drugs were identified. CS is a problem to consider in Emergency Departments and is not exclusive to the young population.

[Chemical submission, epidemiology and some clues for the diagnosis]. / Sumisión química: epidemiología y claves para su diagnóstico.

The use of chemical substances to control people is not a new event. Indeed, it has been done for centuries. This practice has recenttly acquired a new dimension because of its association with sexual assaults and other type of crimes. The frequency of the association of the use of chemical substances with sexual assaults is behind the term SQ (drug facilitated sexual assauit). The Spaniish term foir this practice, Sumisión Química, comes from the French one, Soumissión Chimique, and has a wide meaning. In this review, the epidemiology of SQ is revised and an analysis of its main involved elements, namely the chemical, the victim and the assailant, is done. Chief clinical signs and clues for the toxicological doiagnosis are also appproached.