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.

A large and growing body of research finds racial disparities in discretionary searches of drivers during traffic stops with Black drivers disproportionately involved in these investigations. Among the explanations for these disparities is the deployment hypothesis which suggests that as police departments increasingly adopt hot spots policing strategies, proactive traffic stops and discretionary searches may spatially cluster around crime hot spots contributing to racial disparities. The present study builds on the existing research literature by identifying hot spots using reported crime data from a police department and examining whether these crime hot spots function as a mediating factor to the relationship between driver race and discretionary searches. Findings provide partial support for the deployment hypothesis. While nearly half of all traffic stops transpired within one quarter mile of hot spots and more frequently involved Black drivers, stops involving Black drivers remained more likely to include discretionary searches and increased concomitantly with distance from the nearest hot spot.