Data on teenage spiking incidents

Summary

A request was made for statistics on teenage drink spiking incidents and specifically whether any involved injection. The Isle of Man Constabulary disclosed data on all reported spiking allegations since 2012, clarifying that none involved injection and that the data was not filtered specifically for teenagers.

Key Facts

• Searches covered incidents reported since September 2012 using keywords like 'spike', 'lace', 'drugged', and 'inject'.
• None of the reported incidents involved spiking by injection.
• The data provided includes all allegations regardless of whether they were substantiated or involved teenagers.
• No toxicology confirmation of substance presence was found for any of the incidents.
• Incidents occurring in other jurisdictions were excluded from the figures.

Data Disclosed

• Total incidents 2012-2022: 53
• 2017 incidents: 15
• 2016 incidents: 5
• 2015 incidents: 6
• 2014 incidents: 0
• 2013 incidents: 1
• 2018 incidents: 5
• 2019 incidents: 10
• 2020 incidents: 0
• 2021 incidents (Jan-Sept): 4
• 2021-22 period (Apr-Sept): 3
• Request received: 2021-10-22
• Response date: 1 November 2021
• Case ID: 2049265

Original Request

Good day I hope you are well. I am working on a story on teenagers being spiked and I would like to make a request for stats on the number of incidents the constabulary has recorded. In 2017, the constabulary 11 reports made with teenagers drinks being spiked. Of the spiking incidents, has any of those been whereby a teenager was injected with something instead of where their drink was spiked. I read an article in the UK where a number of teenagers reported they had been injected. I wanted to find out if this is a new trend going around and if it has come over to the island.

Data Tables (2)

Full Response Text

Isle of Man Constabulary Freedom of Information Police Headquarters Dukes Avenue Douglas Isle of Man IM2 4RG

Our ref: 2049265 1 November 2021

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 22 October 2021 and which states:

"Good day I hope you are well. I am working on a story on teenagers being spiked and I would like to make a request for stats on the number of incidents the constabulary has recorded. In 2017, the constabulary 11 reports made with teenagers drinks being spiked. Of the spiking incidents, has any of those been whereby a teenager was injected with something instead of where their drink was spiked. I read an article in the UK where a number of teenagers reported they had been injected. I wanted to find out if this is a new trend going around and if it has come over to the island."

Our response to your request is as follows: I have detailed below the information that is being released to you. Results Searches were made of incidents reported to Police since September 2012. In addition to searching for both ‘drink’ and ‘spike’, or for both ‘drink’ and ‘lacing’/’lace’ to appear in event remarks, further searches were carried out for ‘drugged’ or ‘inject’. Due to search algorithms used, searches for ‘spike’ / ‘lace’ would also return hits for ‘spiked’ / ‘laced’, ‘drink’ would return ‘drinks’, and ‘inject’ would also return ‘injected’. Relevant incidents including ‘date rape’ were also included. Review was completed to remove false hits where incidents did not relate to drugs being added to drinks, injected or otherwise.

Note that the below figures relate only to allegations of spiking, whether or not the allegation was substantiated, and not to allegations of sexual assaults while under undisputed influence of alcohol. Incidents that have been reported to IOMC but occurred within another jurisdiction have also been excluded. While it has been assumed in the request that previous spiking data related only to teenagers this was not one of the criteria it was feasible to search by, and should not be assumed.
It should be noted that there has not been any confirmation from any toxicology confirming the presence of any substance. Total number of ‘spiking’ incidents reported Crime Year 12- 13 13- 14 14- 15 15- 16 16- 17 17- 18 18- 19 19- 20 20- 21 21- 22 Total 0 1 1 7 7 11 9 6 1 3 * Incidents in 21-22 cover the period 01/04/2021 – 30/09/2021. Since these ‘year’ figures do not relate to whole years, for first and last periods, the same data can be shown as: Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total 1 0 6 5 15 5 10 0 4 * Incidents in 2021 cover the period 01/01/2021 – 30/09/2021. Please note that none of the incidents relate to spiking by injection. The data previously provided in FOI 608665, and the updated data in this document, do not explicitly only include incidents relating to teenagers.

Please quote the reference number 2049265 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.