Substance-Involved Sexual Assault Involving Criminalized Drug Use: A Qualitative Study

Substance-involved sexual violence is common and has been well studied, but less research has examined sexual violence that occurs within a criminalized drug context. A small body of research has shown how sexual violence happens within a criminalized drug-using context (i.e., injection drug use), but has not broadly connected drug criminalization as a facilitator of sexual violence. The present study uses qualitative interviews ( N = 14) with a community sample of drug-involved sexual assault survivors who were using drugs during the assault in a criminalized context to investigate whether drug criminalization is a facilitator of sexual violence. Results revealed that the criminalized drug context can facilitate sexual violence, particularly given that most of the sample relied on men for access to those drugs. Additionally, findings show that criminalized drugs impact survivors in terms of impairment and emotions felt during the assault but do not impact the communication of non-consent. Implications around consent education, harm reduction education, and “safe supply” regulation efforts are discussed.