Abstract
This chapter considers the drink spiking problem in a robust party atmosphere—the college campus in the USA, which in the 2014–2015 academic year was the site of heightened activism about the more general problem of rape on campus. Three different high-profile campus incidents are discussed with the aim of understanding how the allegation of spiking can sometimes pull attention away from other problems and undermine the autonomous consideration of sexual assault. The way in which the insistence on drug explanations is considered in the face of scant evidence is actually a retrogression in thinking about rape and may also undermine compassion toward victims of crime.
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Notes
- 1.
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- 2.
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Henry Wechsler and Toben F. Nelson, “What We Have Learned from the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study: Focusing Attention on College Student Alcohol Consumption and the Environmental Conditions That Promote It,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, July 2008, 1–10. The definition, already in use by the CDC and other surveys, was criticized by some as prone to overestimate adverse effects of social drinking. Though the definition did not take into account body weight or other individual-level factors, the researchers defended the use of the definition on both substantive and methodological grounds: the definition was a widely known, already existing threshold amount at which adverse events began to spike in nearly any sample population. It made CAS data comparable to other alcohol use data that had been gathered using the same definition, including that of the Core Institute Survey and the definition used by the World Health Organization. Trends derived from those sets are corroborative of trend.
- 4.
Richard A. Grucza, Karen E. Norberg, Laura J. Bierut, “Binge Drinking Among Youths and Young Adults in the United States: 1979–2006.” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48:7, 2009.
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Aaron M. White, Courtney L. Kraus, Julie D. Flom et al., “College Students Lack Knowledge of Standard Drink Volumes: Implications for Definitions of Risky Drinking Based on Survey Data,” Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 2005. For comparison purposes, for instance, year-to-year differences, this matters little—the tendency to underestimate seems steady. But when using self-report questionnaires to estimate the overall prevalence of problem-level drinking, this fact—shown in many studies—must be kept in mind.
- 6.
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- 7.
Vander Ven, 2011.
- 8.
Pamela Donovan, “The Role of Uncertainty in Knowledge of Suspected Drink Spiking Incidents,” 78th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, New York, NY, February 2008; Burgess, Donovan, and Moore, 2009.
- 9.
From the subsample of respondents (n = 116) who wrote about specific events in an open-ended portion of the survey.
- 10.
Antonia Abbey, “Alcohol-related sexual assault: A common problem among college students,” Journal of Studies in Alcohol, Supplement No. 14, 118–128, 2002; Meichun Mohler-Kuo, George W. Dowdall, Mary P. Koss, and Henry Wechsler, “Correlates of Rape while Intoxicated in a National Sample of College Women, Journal of Studies on Alcohol,” January 2004, 65, 37–45.
- 11.
White and Hingson, 2011.
- 12.
Emily Yoffe, “The Hunting Ground: The failures of a new documentary about rape on college campuses,” Slate, February 27, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2015. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/02/the_hunting_ground_a_campus_rape_documentary_that_fails_to_provide_a_full.single.html.
- 13.
Emily Shire, “What Lady Gaga’s Rape Awareness Video Should Have Said,” Daily Beast, September 18, 2015. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/18/what-lady-gaga-s-rape-awareness-video-should-have-said.html. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- 14.
Emily Bazelon, “The Return of the Sex Wars,” New York Times Magazine, September 10, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2016. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/the-return-of-the-sex-wars.html.
- 15.
The story in question (now retracted) was by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, “A Rape on Campus,” Rolling Stone, no. 1223, November 19, 2014. In it, Erdely related the story of the pseudonymous “Jackie” who was brutally gang-raped and injured at a fraternity party when she was tricked into going on a date. Her friends (also pseudonymous) were described as callous, and the UVA administration unresponsive. The story quickly fell apart under scrutiny, and Erdely admitted failure to properly vet claims made to her by Jackie. Rolling Stone then asked the Columbia University School of Journalism to review the incident and report on what went wrong. The resultant investigative report is: Sheila Coronel, Steve Coll, Derek Kravitz, “The CJR Report: Rolling Stone’s investigation: ‘A failure that was avoidable’,” Columbia Journalism Review, April 5, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2016. http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/a-rape-on-campus-what-went-wrong-20150405.
- 16.
Allison Benedikt and Hanna Rosin, “Double X: The Missing Men,” Slate.com, December 2, 2014. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/12/sabrina_rubin_erdely_uva_why_didn_t_a_rolling_stone_writer_talk_to_the_alleged.2.html. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
- 17.
Ravi Somaiya, “Rolling Stone Article on Rape at University of Virginia Failed All Basics, Report Says,” New York Times, April 5, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/business/media/rolling-stone-retracts-article-on-rape-at-university-of-virginia.html. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
- 18.
It was not clear whether the initial report came from complainants or a third party. NBC Bay Area, “5 People Allegedly Sexually Assaulted at Frat House Near UC Berkeley,” October 17, 2014. http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/279598702.html. Somewhat confusing matters in the same report were two other allegations of sexual assault the same weekend, unrelated to the DKE incident. Reuters, “Five report sexual assaults at University of California Berkeley fraternity,” October 17, 2014. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-berkeley-sexassaults-idUSKCN0I700920141018. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
- 19.
Emilie Raguso, “Update: UC Berkeley student exonerated of rape charge,” Berkeleyside.com, October 17, 2014. http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/10/17/breaking-case-dismissed-against-uc-berkeley-student-charged-with-rape/. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
- 20.
Alan Wang, “Cal Police Receive Anonymous Letter Documenting Sexual Assault at Frat House,” ABC 7 News San Francisco. http://abc7news.com/education/cal-police-receive-anonymous-letter-documenting-sexual-assault-/384606/. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 21.
Allie Jones, “Every Rape Reported at Fraternities This Year,” Gawker.com, December 22, 2014. http://gawker.com/every-rape-reported-at-fraternities-this-year-1671299377. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 22.
Lynn Arditi, “Brown University: Student tested positive for date-rape drug,” Providence Journal, November 8, 2014. http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20141108-brown-university-student-tested-positive-for-date-rape-drug.ece. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 23.
Camilla Brandfield-Harvey, “Undergrad sexual assault forum draws few attendees,” Brown Daily Herald, November 12, 2014. http://www.browndailyherald.com/2014/11/12/undergrad-sexual-assault-forum-draws-attendees/. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 24.
Associated Press, “Brown University: Two Fraternities ‘Facilitated’ Sexual Misconduct,” NBC News, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/brown-university-two-fraternities-facilitated-sexual-misconduct-n289296. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 25.
Lynn Arditi, “Fraternity criticizes Brown University’s actions in alleged ‘date-rape’ drug case,” Providence Journal, February 24, 2015. http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150223/News/150229705.; “Dear Members of the Brown Community,” Phi Kappa Psi Rhode Island, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1674358-phi-kappa-psi-ri-alpha-public-statement.html. Both retrieved January 17, 2016. Brown also obtained a third set of lab results that could not confirm GHB’s presence in either sample above endogenous threshold levels.
- 26.
Susannah Howe, “Students protest at women leaders panel,” Brown Daily Herald, March 6, 2015. http://www.browndailyherald.com/2015/03/06/students-protest-women-leaders-panel/. Retrieved January 17, 2016; Kaitlin Mulhere, “Questions on Money, Influence and Competence,” Inside Higher Ed, March 16, 2015. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/16/brown-u-sexual-assault-investigation-draws-criticism-accused-and-accusers. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 27.
Caroline Kelly, “Student found not responsible for sexual assault; Due to complainant’s incomplete memory of incident, initial ruling upheld upon appeal,” Brown Daily Herald, March 6, 2015. http://www.browndailyherald.com/2015/03/06/student-found-not-responsible-sexual-assault/. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 28.
Editorial Page Board, “Editorial: Response to Emma Sulkowicz’s talk,” Brown Daily Herald, April 19, 2015. http://www.browndailyherald.com/2015/04/19/editorial-response-to-emma-sulkowiczs-talk/. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 29.
Camilla Brandfield-Harvey, “Students report spiked drinks at Phi Psi party, alleged sexual assault later in the night also to be investigated by University officials,” Brown Daily Herald, October 25, 2014. http://www.browndailyherald.com/2014/10/25/students-report-spiked-drinks-phi-psi-party/. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
- 30.
Jesse Garza and Ashley Luthern, “Police probe whether UWM fraternity members put drugs in party drinks,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, September 19, 2014. http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/national-fraternity-suspends-uw-milwaukee-tau-kappa-epsilon-chapter-b99355105z1-275806711.html. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 31.
Kreinbring’s case, as of March 2016, awaits sentence. In January 2016, Kreinbring pled guilty to the drug charges. See Case Details, State of Wisconsin v. Thomas L. Kreinbring, Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Case #2014-CF-4185 at Wisconsin Circuit Court Access: https://wcca.wicourts.gov.
- 32.
Ashley Luthern and Karen Herzog, “Police probe whether UWM fraternity members put drugs in party drinks,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, September 18, 2014. http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/uw-milwaukee-fraternity-probed-over-drugs-slipped-into-party-drinks-b99354529z1-275664681.html. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 33.
Graham Kilmer, “UWM Official Found a Key Allegation into TKE Fraternity Appeared False, Motion Says,” Media Milwaukee (Department of Journalism Student News, UWM), Retrieved March 20, 2016. http://mediamilwaukee.com/news/tke-fraternity-allegations.
- 34.
Bruce Vielmetti, “Ex-frat leader argues UWM police botched search warrants in date-rape drug investigation,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, February 19, 2015. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/292492731.html. Kreinbring’s motion to exclude the drug evidence seized can be found at: http://defensewisconsin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Kreinbring-MTS-2-final-version.pdf. Both retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 35.
In the USA, generally, only arrests with probable cause may be made out of jurisdiction, pertaining to crimes within, imminent danger being the only exception. This warrant was served more than 72 hours later.
- 36.
Kreinbring’s Motion, 8. Kreinbring’s Motion to Suppress was not ultimately successful.
- 37.
Christie Green, “Former President of a UWM fraternity fights date rape drug allegations,” CBS News 58 Milwaukee, August 27, 2015. http://www.cbs58.com/story/29895314/former-president-of-a-uwm-fraternity-fights-date-rape-drug-allegations/. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
- 38.
Fredrick Kunkle, “Maryland Senate backs ban on sale of grain alcohol in bid to curb binge drinking,” Washington Post, February 5, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-senate-backs-ban-on-sale-of-grain-alcohol-to-curb-binge-drinking/2014/02/05/717f72aa-8e88-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html.
- 39.
Sinozich and Langton, 2014.
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“Veronica Mars,” Television series. UPN network, 2004–2006, CW network 2006–2007.
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Sarah Whitney, “No Longer that Girl: Rape Narrative and Meaning in Veronica Mars,” in Rhonda Wilcox and Sue Turnbull, eds., Investigating Veronica Mars: Essays on the Teen Detective Series, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company), 2010.
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Donovan, P. (2016). Drugs, Drinking, College, and Warding off Blame. In: Drink Spiking and Predatory Drugging. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57517-3_8
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