The number of people openly speaking about the phenomenon of drink spiking has increased over the years, but there is still little research on the subject. It seems as if the subject is fadinginto oblivion, as the society is not yet ready for an honest discussion about drink spiking as a form of violence against people, especially women. It is therefore of the utmost importance for social work to raise awareness of the phenomenon, brand this type of crime as unacceptable and offer help to both victims and perpetrators. As we do not know much about the latter, I focused my graduation thesis mainly on victims, with an emphasis on available support that can foster their recovery. Since the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are the most active form of support in this field, I included them in my research. In the theoretical introduction, I situated the phenomenon of drink spiking within feminist theory on violence against women. I
wrote down the basic definitions of violence, violence against women, sexual violence, and drink spiking. I presented the possible motives for drink spiking, the frequency of the
phenomenon, the drugs used for drink spiking, the most common locations of this crime, and the profile of the victims and perpetrators. I then placed the phenomenon in the legal context, gave some guidelines for reporting a sexual offence, presented the victim assistance system, and finally showed the relevance of the topic for social work. I carried out qualitative research, collected data through the semi-structured interview research tool. The population consisted of professionals working in NGOs in the Republic of Slovenia in 2024, who had already dealt with
at least one case of sexual assault following drink spiking. From this population, I drew a nonrandomized sample of five professionals and conducted five interviews. Interview questions focused on assessing the frequency of sexual abuse in connection to drink spiking, the relationship between perpetrators and victims, and possible ways for working with them. Next, I explored what professionals consider to be the needs of the victims who seek help, and whether the form of help they receive is related to the time lag since the event. I looked at the victims’ experiences when reporting the crime after the amendment of the Criminal Code, explored how practitioners deal with under-age victims (duty to report), and examined the theoretical background of professionals when working with victims. Finally, the interviews revealed the challenges faced by professionals and the role of social work when working with victims of drink spiking and sexual violence.
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