Chemical Submission

1.- Concept, Purpose, and Scope of Chemical Submission

Chemical substances have been used from prehistoric times to the present day, initially employing substances of natural origin, and over time progressing to the manufacture of synthetic chemical substances. Among the purposes for which these substances were used are medicine, crime, religion, physical endurance, etc.

The term “chemical submission” derives from the French soumission chimique and can be defined as “the administration of chemical substances to a person, without their consent and without their knowledge, for criminal purposes.” The purpose of this practice is to alter the victim’s state of consciousness, their behavior, or nullify their will, thereby preventing them from giving consent freely or offering resistance to the person attempting to commit the offense in question.

This is not a novel practice, but the considerable increase in cases recorded over recent decades must be taken into account. The highest number of cases is related to sexual offenses, although chemical submission is also used to commit crimes against the socioeconomic order such as robberies, others such as homicides, and cases of sedation or incapacitation of individuals, such as the sick, elderly, and minors.

2.- Types of Chemical Submission and Substances Used

The vast majority of authors distinguish different categories based on voluntariness or lack of knowledge when ingesting substances that may alter the victim’s consciousness:

• Premeditated or proactive submission: In these cases, the perpetrator administers the incapacitating and disinhibiting substance to the victim without their knowledge or consent in order to subdue them.

• Opportunistic chemical submission: Unlike the previous case, here the victim is already in a state of unconsciousness from having voluntarily consumed substances that have caused this situation. The perpetrator therefore takes advantage of this circumstance to carry out non-consensual acts.

• Mixed chemical submission: The victim voluntarily consumes substances that may alter their consciousness and volitional capacity (such as alcohol) and the aggressor administers other substances that help accelerate the submission effect intended to be achieved.

All these cases are characterized by the absence of resistance on the part of the victims due to the state they are in; they are unable to respond to the attacks they receive from the perpetrator, and the perpetrator has greater ease in assaulting their victim.

There is a very wide range of substances that can be used to diminish a person’s will and faculties, but normally all tend to be characterized by the following distinctive features.

• Colorless, odorless, and tasteless substances. To make their administration easy and prevent the victim from being able to recognize it within what they are ingesting.

• Fast-acting and short-duration. An immediate response is sought after ingestion of the drug or pharmaceutical.
• That produce effects at low doses. To make detection of these substances more difficult in possible analyses performed on the victim.

• Nonspecific effects. The aim is for the symptoms they produce in the victim to be confused with those produced by ethyl alcohol ingestion or some illness.

• Ease of obtaining such substances. Typically, medications are used that can be obtained with or without a prescription, but which when combined with ethyl alcohol consumption produce the psychoactive effects sought by the offender.

The most frequently used substances are ethyl alcohol, benzodiazepines, hypnotics, cannabinoids, cocaine, analgesics, anesthetics, barbiturates, or liquid ecstasy.

3.- Cases

As mentioned previously, the most common cases in which chemical submission is used are those in which the victim’s sexual freedom and integrity are violated. Typically, these events take place in nightlife establishments, where it is more difficult for the victim and other people around them to detect the administration of these substances.

However, cases of robbery through the administration of scopolamine, better known as burundanga, are also very frequent. Elderly people are most prone to being victims of this type of crime, where their will is nullified and they are forced to withdraw money from their bank accounts to hand over to the aggressors.

Similar techniques are used to break into homes or commercial premises, spraying owners or employees with sedative liquids and stealing money and other valuables.

4.- Legal Perspective

In the criminal sphere, the greatest reference to chemical submission is made in 2010, with the introduction of Article 181 of the Criminal Code in relation to sexual abuse.

This article specifies that: “non-consensual sexual abuse includes that which is committed against persons who are deprived of consciousness or whose mental disorder is abused, as well as that committed by nullifying the victim’s will through the use of pharmaceuticals, drugs, or any other natural or chemical substance suitable for such purpose.”

For other crimes, the Criminal Code does not provide that the use of drugs for the commission of the criminal act be considered an aggravating factor; however, there is established case law that equates cases of chemical submission to the violence that may be exercised in other crimes such as robbery.

Reference can be made to STS 2217/1989, of September 8, 1989, which classifies seizure after narcotization as robbery with violence under art. 501.5º CP; as well as STS 2442/1992, of November 16, which indicated that: “administering a narcotic that immobilizes them (as much or more than if they were tied up) and exerting effects on their entire organism, more or less serious depending on dose, age, contraindications, etc., is a harmful aggression no less than struggling, bindings, pushing, etc.”

Likewise, STS 2395/1993, of October 30, equates the results of actual violence with the administration of a hypnotic pharmaceutical.

For all these reasons, it is considered that the possibility should be assessed that cases of submission be subject to criminal reform given the defenselessness generated in victims; and that they not only be included within sexual abuse crimes, but constitute an aggravating factor for any crime in which hypnotics and narcotics are used to achieve the consummation of the offense.

Author: Sara Domínguez Ramos

Specialist Lawyers in Crimes Involving Chemical Submission | IN DIEM: Málaga, Seville, Madrid, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Almería, Huelva…

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