Giving a "rape pill" - only an assistant or an accomplice in rape - legal and criminal aspects

Abstract

The information and educational campaign under the slogan "WATCH YOUR DRINK", initiated in 2007 by the National Office for the Prevention of Drug Addiction, was addressed mainly to young people attending discos, music clubs, pubs and other entertainment venues, who may become potential victims of activities criminal offenses involving adding psychotropic substances to drinks that cause loss of consciousness. The popularity of the so-called "rape pills", an increase in the number of sexual crimes in which victims were tricked into having sexual intercourse and the perpetrators' modus operandi of adding "rape pills" to the drink, pose a challenge to the justice system in determining responsibility for the crime of rape specified in Art. 197 Penal Code based on the role of individual participants in the crime, and thus adopting a specific construction of perpetration and indicating co-perpetration or aiding and abetting perpetration.