Coercion, Access, and Control

• Author: Sherry Hamby
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016817751581
• Date: 01 March 2018
• Subject Matter: Introduction to Special Issue

Introduction to Special Issue
Criminal Justice Review
2018, Vol. 43(1) 5-9
Coercion, Access, and Control:
ª 2018 Georgia State University
Reprints and permission:
Understanding Drugging
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DOI: 10.1177/0734016817751581
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Sherry Hamby1
Abstract
This special issue on drugging presents five articles that make important contributions to this still
emerging literature. Although historical incidents of drugging, which is the nonconsensual admin-
istration of psychoactive substances, have been documented for decades, scientific scholarship on
this phenomenon is relatively new. These articles provide in-depth consideration of conceptual
issues around this behavior, which can be difficult to detect and is not always perceived as an offense
by young adults. The authors also contribute important new quantitative and qualitative data on a
range of risk factors include differential vulnerability across racial groups and sexual identities. Data
on victimization responses and revictimization are presented. Regarding perpetrators, an analysis of
the media treatment of high-status perpetrators, in this case medical professionals, also illuminates
ongoing challenges in the social perceptions of drugging and the criminal status of the offense.
Keywords
drugs and crime, criminal victimization, substance abuse
Social science research can be surprisingly conservative in some respects, and researchers some-
times take a long time before their collective attention is turned to important yet emergent phenom-
ena. Thus, it is with particular pleasure that I introduce the articles in this special issue on drugging
or the nonconsensual administration of psychoactive substances to others. This is a significant public
health problem in many settings and one that has a long history, yet we still know relatively little
about it. These offenses are not always reported to law enforcement, but in most jurisdictions,
drugging would be a form of assault and in some jurisdictions, other offenses might apply. For
example, in Colorado, perpetrators can be charged with inducing consumption of controlled sub-
stances by fraudulent means (Parker, 2012). This set of articles is an important step forward in
advancing our understanding of drugging.
Drugging has been around for a very long time, and there are numerous historical accounts of
individuals being given psychoactive substances without their consent, such as the Beatles’ first
experience with Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in the 1960s, which involved getting “dosed”
without their consent by a dentist, an experience that George Harrison described as upsetting for
1 Life Paths Appalachian Research Center and University of the South, Sewanee, TN, USA
Corresponding Author:
Sherry Hamby, Life Paths Appalachian Research Center, 1016 W Main St, Ste 3, Monteagle, TN 37356, USA.
Email: sherry.hamby@sewanee.edu

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Criminal Justice Review 43(1)
many years afterward (Herbert, 2006). The contemporary focus on the drugging problem has often
centered on the use of drugs like Rohypnol (“roofies”) to incapacitate victims with the intent of
sexually assaulting them (Colyer & Weiss, 2018), but there are many other reasons for drugging
including efforts that perpetrators describe as intended to create “fun,” a better party experience, or
even as a practical joke (Swan et al., 2017). Some of these scenarios have even become stereotypes,
such as youth “spiking” punch with alcohol at school parties. Using this broader lens, current efforts
to estimate the extent of drugging in...