Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault

A sexual assault in which the offender administers, or takes advantage of a victim already under the influence of, alcohol or another intoxicating or incapacitating substance in order to compromise the victim's ability to resist or to consent, a pattern criminologists and law enforcement distinguish from other sexual assault by the deliberate use of intoxication as a means of facilitating the offense. A documented subtype involves the covert administration of a substance, popularly termed a date-rape drug, such as gamma-hydroxybutyrate or flunitrazepam, into a victim's drink without their knowledge, though research by agencies including the United States National Institute of Justice has found that alcohol, consumed voluntarily by the victim and then exploited by the offender, is documented as the substance most commonly involved in drug-facilitated sexual assault overall.