Are the Government doing enough?

I have just got off the phone with the newsdesk at the Home Office press office. Why is it that as soon as you mention the word student people think they can just fob you off? Nevertheless I managed to squeeze some information out of them.

I started by saying that I have hit a brick wall since reported cases of rape hit an all-time high of 12,000 in 2004 and drug rape was in the headlines. And after the conversation I am still banging my head on it.

I was told that in 2001 the FSS (Forensic Science Service) carried out research into the involvement of drugs in rape cases and they found that only 2% were date rapes. I have looked on their websites and see no evidence of these stats so I have left a message to get the information from the horse's mouth and will report my findings.

Secondly, I was advised to look on the statistics website www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds for more up-to-date information. I found nothing on drink spiking but I did see that recorded rapes increased by 3% in 2005/6. An article in the Guardian by Maggie O'Kane www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story0..1300086,00.html which is very relevant, states of how there are no Home Office statistics for drink spiking. The Guardian carried out its own survey with 750 people in 16 cities. The results came out that 1 in 4 women have had their drinks spiked, who went on to get raped is not known. It was shown using this survey that 30 women a week have their drinks spiked. A bit different to what the governent are leading us to believe.

The information that the I have seen on the Home Office website is all very superficial as the government don't seem to delve deeper into drink spiking or sexual assault issues because of their complexity. But how long can they hide behind this? Surely they can see that this is real. One infomercial in 2000 as a part of the Millenium project does not provide sufficient awareness into the dangers of drink spiking.