The first study into drink spiking in nearly two decades will aim to find ways to alert people of the risks they face and where they are at their greatest.
Bendigo's Rural Health School will spend the next two years looking into drink-spiking activities to inform local and global preventative measures.
La Trobe University said the last research on drink spiking was done in 2004 by the Australian Institute of Criminology. Now, the Victorian Government is spending $265,000 to fund the new research.
Bendigo police stepped up its patrols of nightclubs and bars in May last year after receiving 10 reports of drink spiking since the beginning of February; all reported to be from the same venue.
And in January this year, police in Victoria and New South Wales raised concerns about needle spiking after receiving reports of woman being targeted in hospitality venues.
The ABC's reporting on drink spiking in Central Victoria in 2021 and 2022 led the Rural Health School to successfully apply for funding to update old research on drink spiking.
Limited understanding of drink spiking
La Trobe University Rural Health School reseacher Lisa Hooker, who will lead the drink spiking study, said the result would help the government put in more preventative measures.
She said the most recent data on the subject was compiled in 2004.
"It's a major issue globally, so we are exploring what's happening for victim-survivors to see what sort of experience that they've had, but more importantly to see what sort of response they've received when they have sought support from police, health services and the venues themselves."
The team of sexual health researchers will do the research in four phases and will be working with the community with the aim of ultimately preventing drink spiking from occurring.
Drink spiking under-reported
The Centre Against Sexual Assault said 97 per cent of perpetrators of sexual violence were men, and despite drink spiking being an under-reported crime, it could say that only 10 per cent of women reported it.
Centre strategy manager Lee Edmonds said drink spiking was traumatic for people who were victim-survivors.
"They've taken time to come forward because it's a complex issue," she said.
She said victim-survivors had woken up in different places and been unsure of what had happened.
"It is difficult to know the extent of it, so it's why this research is so important," she said.
Crime prevention focus
Police Minister Anthony Carbines said the new research would help inform the Victorian government on crime prevention going into the future.
"Nationwide, we've seen between 3,000 and 4,000, mostly women, affected by drink spiking and a large proportion of those are then victims of sexual assault," he said.
"But the last study is back in about 2004, so we need some contemporary work done."
He said people needed to have better support mechanisms to make their complaints and understand what had happened to them.
Mr Carbines said the research would help him make a case to the Victorian Government about where to dedicate more resources.
"It will be embedded in research, in real instances of the effects of drink spiking, and it should map out [the way forward] for us," he said.
Questions need answers
Ms Edmonds also backed the health-led approach to crime prevention and justice, saying anti-drink spiking measures would be preventative and information-led.
"We need to know more about how this kind of crimes are facilitated, what kind of context they occur in, so that we can look at the data and develop some action, and some community education, that is going to be effective," she said.
"And that also means working with nightclubs and the bars in our local area."
