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Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6440589/Date-rape-drink-spiking-an-urban-legend.html
Widespread spiking of drinks with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB is an "urban legend" fuelled by young women unwilling to accept they have simply consumed too much alcohol, academics believe. A study of more than 200 students revealed many wrongly blamed the effects of a "bad night out" on date-rape drugs, when they had just drunk excessively.
Many are in "active denial" that drinking large amounts of alcohol can leave them "incoherent and incapacitated", the Kent University researchers concluded. Young women's fears about date-rape drugs are so ingrained that students mistakenly think it is a more important factor in sexual assault than being drunk, taking drugs or walking alone at night.
The study, published in the British Journal of Criminology, found three-quarters of students identified drink spiking as an important risk – more than alcohol or drugs. More than half said they knew someone whose drink had been spiked.
But despite popular beliefs, police have found no evidence that rape victims are commonly drugged with such substances, the researchers said.
Dr Adam Burgess from the university's School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, said: "Young women appear to be displacing their anxieties about the consequences of consuming what is in the bottle on to rumours of what could be put there by someone else.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Wednesday September 21 2016, @05:03AM
I suspect that their are, broadly speaking, two different "classes" of rape, or perhaps simply extremes on a spectrum
The first and most publicized being premeditated violent rape, whereby sex is used as a means of inflicting power/dominance/humiliation over a target, generally as a symbolic act to release deep-seated psychological issues. In that context I think it's correct to say that it's not about sex per se, but that sex is nonetheless a powerful symbolic/metaphorical focus for those issues. Which is not terribly surprising given its biological and hence psychological importance. There's probably stacks of scholarly essays that could be written as to whether or not sex actually sits at the origin of many/most such issues, or is simply a convenient focus, but I'll leave those to someone with more insight into such damaged psyches than I.
The second, and probably far more common, I would classify as opportunistic rape - and this one I would say absolutely *is* about sex. These would be the Brocks of the world - those who apparently aren't driven by any need for relief from psychological damage, but simply see an opportunity and take it - whether that involves violence, intimidation, or just the expediency of noticing an incapacitated target. Presumably because either they don't see women as deserving of control over their own bodies, or are bullies that just don't care so long as they get what they want.
I blame the "it's not about sex" meme on the fact that the first group is far richer fodder for storytellers - the monster who stalks his prey to get relief from some psychological torment makes for a compelling villain. The asshole with no respect for others - he's just the bully we've all dealt with at one time or another. That he crossed a line from petty torment to inflicting potentially severe psychological trauma doesn't make him any more interesting. Not even as interesting as the man who murders someone in a fit of rage. There at least there's some fire, the forbidden release of being completely overcome by your passions. The opportunist though, he's just the creeping banality of evil - the street mugger, the over-demanding boss. Culturally invisible because to see him would risk acknowledging the quiet corruption whose tendrils so thoroughly and seemingly irresistibly permeate our lives.
And, as our perceptions are heavily colored by drama, the more dramatic story gets perceived as the more common one - not unlike people fearing airplanes and pedophiles when cars and the flu are the far greater actual threats.
Or so sayeth a late-night armchair philosopher with a belly full of alcohol.