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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: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Wednesday September 21 2016, @11:40AM
I wouldn't say you're an aberration. I'd say you're damned lucky.
Thanks for the correction (WRT the Slate article), and the explanation of your point of view.
I don't know. In the 32 years that I've been sexually active, I've never come across a woman who falsely cried rape, nor do I know anyone who has experienced that.
Please note that I live in a *very* large city and have lived in/traveled to many places in the US. I am not a sheltered/cloistered religious type either. I've pretty much always been a sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll kind of guy. That's not to say I attempt to get inside any panties that walk past me, but I'm not a shrinking violet either.
Perhaps I (and every other male I know) have been, as you say, "damned lucky." But that seems unlikely. Then again, I'm middle-aged, not a teen or twenty-something guy who may deal with immaturity (both his own and that of women his age) more often than I do.
At the same time, I was once that age too and managed to get through without being set upon by a romantic interest, girlfriend, lover, fling or one-night stand. So maybe I was just living right.
Then again, I've generally been a pretty good judge of people and try hard to be trustworthy. So maybe I've just avoided the *really* crazy people.
Or perhaps it's a generational thing, but false rape accusations weren't prevalent (the term "rare" would be overkill, as I recall) when I was that age, at least not within my peer groups or in the media. I wonder what's different now? Perhaps it's because that generation grew up with their whole lives on display in a way that didn't happen when I was young.
Or perhaps false rape accusations happen at a similar frequency as they did in the past, but we just hear about it more, since everything is magnified through the scourge of "social media."
Who knows? Who cares? Not me.
In any case, I see no reason to change what's worked for me my whole adult life.
I've never had a desire to tell anyone how they should live their life or interact with others, and I won't start now. I think I understand your concerns about this and I'm sure you know what's best for you.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday September 22 2016, @07:04PM
Part of it may be situational. Since you and I were of college age, many schools have developed internal procedures and punishments for rape that do not involve police or the courts and do not require proof beyond reasonable doubt. In some cases they don't even allow defensive testimony or cross examination.