Police Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases: An Analysis of Crime Reported to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, 2008

The underreporting of sexual assault is well known to researchers, practitioners, and victims. When victims do report, their complaints are unlikely to end in arrest or prosecution. Existing research on police discretion suggests that the police decision to arrest for sexual assault offenses can be influenced by a variety of legal and extra-legal factors particularly challenges to victim credibility. Although extant literature examines the effects of individual behaviors on police outcomes, less is known about how the accumulation of these behaviors, attributions, and characteristics affects police decision making. Using data collected from the Los Angeles Police Department and Sheriff’s Department, we examine one police decision point—the arrest to fill this gap in the literature. First, we examine the extent to which the effects of potential challenges to victim credibility, based on victim characteristics and behaviors, influence the arrest decision, and next, how these predictors vary across circumstances. Specifically, we examine how factors that challenge victim credibility affect the likelihood of arrest in sexual assault cases where the victim and offender are strangers, acquaintances, and intimate partners.

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Unfounded, Cleared, or Cleared by Exceptional Means: Sexual Assault Case Outcomes From 1999 to 2014

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/0886260519876718 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 088626051987671 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rachel M. Venema ◽

Katherine Lorenz ◽

Nicole Sweda

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Sexual Assault ◽

Police Department ◽

Future Research ◽

Logistic Regression Models ◽

Police Decision Making ◽

Case Files ◽

Extralegal Factors ◽

Assault Victims ◽

Sexual Assault Case

Sexual assault is a highly underreported crime with even fewer cases proceeding to the point of charges and prosecution, suggesting that sexual assault victims have less opportunity for legal justice than other crime victims. Case attrition may, in part, be due to negative attitudes and rape myth acceptance (RMA) in police decision making. Yet, little attention has been paid to examining the evidentiary and extralegal factors surrounding the case that contribute to police decision making and case outcomes through examination of police case files. This examination is necessary to address the issue of differential processing of sexual assault cases in the criminal justice system. This study uses police data of sexual assault case files from 1999 to 2014 ( N = 23,525) to examine the assault, victim, and detective characteristics that contribute to case outcomes of unfounded, cleared, and exceptionally cleared through arrest and victim refusal to prosecute. Logistic regression models tested 15 years of reported sexual assault data from one large police department and found that elements that correspond with RMA were predictive of unfounded, cleared, and exceptionally cleared case decisions, providing further indication that officers consider evidentiary but also extralegal factors in decision making. Overall, results support previous contentions that sexual assault victims have unequal access to legal justice, particularly victims possessing demographic and assault characteristics that do not align with stereotypical notions of rape. Implications for future research and policing practices are discussed.

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The Sexual Stratification Hypothesis: Is the Decision to Arrest Influenced by the Victim/Suspect Racial/Ethnic Dyad?

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/0886260516651093 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 34 (6) ◽

pp. 1287-1310 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Eryn Nicole O’Neal ◽

Laura O. Beckman ◽

Cassia Spohn

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Los Angeles ◽

Sexual Assault ◽

Quantitative Data ◽

Los Angeles County ◽

Small Body ◽

Police Department ◽

Strength Of Evidence ◽

Racial Ethnic ◽

Sexual Stratification

The sexual stratification hypothesis suggests that criminal justice responses to sexual victimization will differ depending on the victim/suspect racial/ethnic dyad. Previous research examining the sexual stratification hypothesis has primarily focused on court processes, and the small body of literature examining arrest decisions is dated. There remains substantial opportunity for testing the sexual stratification hypothesis at response stages apart from the court level (i.e., arrest). Using quantitative data on 655 sexual assault complaints that were reported to the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department (LASD) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 2008, this study examines the effect of the victim/suspect racial/ethnic dyad on the decision to arrest. Findings suggest that police consider the victim/suspect racial/ethnic dyad when making arrest decisions. In addition, victim characteristics, strength of evidence indicators, and measures of case factors predict the police decision to make an arrest.

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Focal Concerns and Police Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Trauma Violence & Abuse ◽

10.1177/1524838021991285 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 152483802199128

Author(s):

David S. Lapsey ◽

Bradley A. Campbell ◽

Bryant T. Plumlee

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Decision Making ◽

Sexual Assault ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

The United States ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Campbell Collaboration ◽

Focal Concerns ◽

Police Decision Making ◽

The Impact

Sexual assault and case attrition at the arrest stage are serious problems in the United States. Focal concerns have increasingly been used to explain police decision making in sexual assault cases. Because of the popularity of the focal concerns perspective and potential to inform evidence-based training, a systematic review and meta-analysis are needed to condense the literature. In this study, we assess the overall strength of the relationship between focal concerns variables and police decisions to arrest in cases of sexual assault. Our assessment of the effects of focal concerns variables on arrest decision making in sexual assault cases followed the systematic review protocols provided by the Campbell Collaboration of Systematic Reviews. Specifically, we used the Campbell Collaboration recommendations to search empirical literature and used meta-analysis to evaluate the size, direction, and strength of the impact of focal concerns variables on arrest decisions. Our search strategy detected 14 eligible studies and 79 effect sizes. The meta-analysis found several robust and statistically significant correlates of arrest. In fact, each focal concerns concept produced at least one robust arrest correlate. Overall, focal concerns offers a strong approach for explaining police decisions in sexual assault cases. Although practical concerns and resource constraints produced the strongest arrest correlates, results show the importance of additional case characteristics in officers’ decision to arrest.

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