Hopefully the increased risk created by accepting strange drinks and getting smashed in an environment like this is obvious to people training for or teaching self protection skills. Nightclubs and large parties where moderate alcohol consumption is the norm are very attractive environments for sexual predators. They provide opportunities to dose drinks as well as to pick up women (or men) who have drank themselves into an inability to recognize risk.

The surveillance camera footage of the man taking the mostly comatose woman out of the club with no reaction from the crowd caught my attention. I thought of the bystander effect. If you have ever experienced this during an obvious emergency, imagine how much easier it could occur in a less apparent emergency. In the nightclub shown, most people probably thought that the guy was taking his drunk date/girlfriend/wife home, and declined becoming involved out of disinterest or apprehension that they might overstep a social boundary. Or maybe they didn’t even register it at all. A few questions to consider: