Coercion, Access, and Control: Understanding Drugging

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 administration 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