Contextualizing the Drink

Accounts of drink tampering and subsequent sexual assault are commonly shared among students on college campuses, with more than a third of college students in one study claiming to know someone who has been drugged without their knowledge. This phenomenon has produced two schools of thought. A risk mitigation approach attempts to isolate and measure the risks of drink-spiking as a real problem, whereas a social constructionist approach treats drink-spiking as a cultural narrative, even a myth, that symbolizes broader social anxieties. This article critically assesses both arguments and proposes a theoretical middle ground that attempts to contextualize drink-spiking narratives as a site for critical inquiry. We argue that researchers are hampered by an unwillingness to see drink-spiking as both a cultural phenomenon and a problem of consequence. In our critical discussion, we propose a theoretical framework that contextualizes drink-spiking narratives that “everyone knows” as learned, shared, and reified within select social spaces, namely, “party scenes” rife with ambiguity and conflict. Within these contexts, narratives of drink-spiking are constructs that have both utility and consequence. As such, drink-spiking narratives present a problem worth inquiry