IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v8y2019i6p180-d238720.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Arrest and Referral Decisions in Sexual Assault Cases: The Influence of Police Discretion on Case Attrition

Author

Listed:
  • Ericka Wentz

    (Department of Criminology, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA 30118, USA)

  • Kelsey Keimig

    (Department of Criminal Justice and Political Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA)

Abstract

Research on sexual assault case attrition spans from the decision of victims to report the incidents and cooperate with police during investigations through the final case disposition in the courtroom. However, few studies have focused on how police discretion influences attrition at the points of arrest and case referral. The current study examines factors of adult sexual assaults reported to the police to determine which legal and extralegal factors were predictive of arrest and which variables were predictive of police decisions to refer cases to prosecutors for consideration. The results of this study showed victim cooperation and evidence significantly predicted arrest and referral, along with variables which measured the seriousness of the case and victim credibility. The findings confirmed both legally relevant and extralegal variables were important considerations during each decision-making point. Implications arising from these results are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ericka Wentz & Kelsey Keimig, 2019. "Arrest and Referral Decisions in Sexual Assault Cases: The Influence of Police Discretion on Case Attrition," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-13, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:6:p:180-:d:238720
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/6/180/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/6/180/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kingsnorth, Rodney & Lopez, John & Wentworth, Jennifer & Cummings, Debra, 1998. "Adult sexual assault: The role of racial/ethnic composition in prosecution and sentencing," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 359-371, September.
    2. Tellis, Katharine M. & Spohn, Cassia C., 2008. "The sexual stratification hypothesis revisited: Testing assumptions about simple versus aggravated rape," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 252-261, July.
    3. Bouffard, Jeffrey A., 2000. "Predicting type of sexual assault case closure from victim, suspect, and case characteristics," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 527-542.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kimberly Przeszlowski & Rob T. Guerette & Lori K. Sudderth, 2023. "The Role and Impact of the Use of Information Technologies by Police in Response to Violence against Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-18, June.
    2. Jodie Murphy-Oikonen & Lori Chambers & Ainsley Miller & Karen McQueen, 2022. "Sexual Assault Case Attrition: The Voices of Survivors," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lovell, Rachel E. & Klingenstein, Joanna & Du, Jiaxin & Overman, Laura & Sabo, Danielle & Ye, Xinyue & Flannery, Daniel J., 2023. "Using machine learning to assess rape reports: Sentiment analysis detection of officers' “signaling” about victims' credibility," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Tellis, Katharine M. & Spohn, Cassia C., 2008. "The sexual stratification hypothesis revisited: Testing assumptions about simple versus aggravated rape," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 252-261, July.
    3. Crow, Matthew S. & Gertz, Marc, 2008. "Sentencing policy and disparity: Guidelines and the influence of legal and democratic subcultures," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 362-371, August.
    4. Sarah Marx Quintanar, 2011. "Do Driver Decisions in Traffic Court Motivate Police Discrimination in Issuing Speeding Tickets?," Departmental Working Papers 2011-13, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    5. Campbell, Bradley A. & Menaker, Tasha A. & King, William R., 2015. "The determination of victim credibility by adult and juvenile sexual assault investigators," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 29-39.
    6. Franklin, Cortney A. & Fearn, Noelle E., 2008. "Gender, race, and formal court decision-making outcomes: Chivalry/paternalism, conflict theory or gender conflict?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 279-290, July.
    7. Mourtgos, Scott M. & Adams, Ian T. & Mastracci, Sharon H., 2021. "Improving victim engagement and officer response in rape investigations: A longitudinal assessment of a brief training," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. James Meernik, 2003. "Victor's Justice or the Law? Judging And Punishing At The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 47(2), pages 140-162, April.
    9. Michael P Anastario & Monica Adhiambo Onyango & Joan Nyanyuki & Karen Naimer & Rachel Muthoga & Susannah Sirkin & Kelle Barrick & Martijn van Hasselt & Wilson Aruasa & Cynthia Kibet & Grace Omollo, 2014. "Time Series Analysis of Sexual Assault Case Characteristics and the 2007–2008 Period of Post-Election Violence in Kenya," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-6, August.
    10. Kristine Eck & Charles Crabtree, 2020. "Gender differences in the prosecution of police assault: Evidence from a natural experiment in Sweden," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, July.
    11. Maxwell, Christopher D. & Robinson, Amanda L. & Post, Lori A., 2003. "The impact of race on the adjudication of sexual assault and other violent crimes," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 523-538.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:6:p:180-:d:238720. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.