‘The System Can't Cope’: The Service System Response to Alcohol and Other Drug‐Facilitated Sexual Violence

Alcohol and other drug‐facilitated sexual violence can have significant impacts on victim‐survivors, yet little is known about what support service providers offer them. To understand the experiences and perceptions of service providers, interviews with counsellors, health workers, forensic toxicologists and harm reduction workers were conducted. Two themes were generated, theme one: ‘The hidden contexts of AOD‐facilitated sexual violence’ with the sub‐themes ‘Characteristics and tactics of perpetrators’ and ‘substances used to facilitate sexual violence’ and theme two: ‘Barriers to service system responses’ with the sub‐themes ‘Lack of resourcing’, ‘information gaps’ and ‘stigma and discrimination’. Participants relayed that victim‐survivors identified the perpetrator often as a known male who had administered additional alcohol to them. Participants highlighted significant difficulties facing the service system, including a critical lack of resourcing for their work to be conducted effectively. They also identified information gaps resulting in unintended misinformation being divulged to victim‐survivors who were also reported to experience significant stigma and discrimination. Overall, participants advocated the need for significant reform of the service system, including better resourcing, clearer information and reducing stigma, to better support the needs of victim‐survivors.