It All Just Piles Up: Challenges to Victim Credibility Accumulate to Influence Sexual Assault Case Processing

Abstract

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.

Why Police “Couldn't or Wouldn't” Submit Sexual Assault Kits for Forensic DNA Testing: A Focal Concerns Theory Analysis of Untested Rape Kits

“…For example, Tasca et al (2013Tasca et al ( : 1167) cited a police report in which a detective wrote, "Victim is a prostitute, addict, smoked crack with suspect;" (see also Shaw et al 2017). These indexes of perceived credibility-and others-are consistent predictors of case closures, exceptional clearances, unfounding decisions, false report designations, or otherwise no actions taken in reported rape cases (Kaiser et al 2017;Kelley & Campbell 2013;Morabito et al 2016;Murphy et al 2014;Pattavina et al 2016;Spohn & Tellis 2010;Spohn et al 2014;Tasca et al 2013). From this body of work, it stands to reason that police may not submit rape kits for forensic DNA testing if they believe that victims are not credible.…”

A meta-analysis of the emotional victim effect for female adult rape complainants: Does complainant distress influence credibility?

“…Complainants who think they will not be believed do not report to authorities (e.g., Stern Review, 2010). Police officers are more likely to recommend investigating and prosecuting cases (Ask, 2010;Alderden & Ullman, 2012;Brown et al, 2007;Kerstetter, 1990;Morabito, Pattavina & Williams, 2016;Tasca, Rodriguez, Spohn & Koss, 2013), prosecutors are more likely to proceed to trial (Frohmann, 1991;Lievore, 2005;Spohn & Tellis, 2012), and jurors are more likely to convict the defendant (e.g., Ellison & Munro, 2009) when the complainant is deemed credible. This means it is critical that credibility judgments are made without prejudice.…”

role of the victim-assailant relationship in sexual assault case attrition

“…Rape mythology and the focal concerns theory have both been widely used to explain decision making in sexual assault cases (Alderden, 2008;Clay-Warner & Burt, 2005;Du Mont, Miller, & Myhr, 2003;Frohmann, 1991;Grubb & Turner, 2012;Lonsway & Archambault, 2012;Morabito et al, 2016;O'Neal, Tellis, & Spohn, 2015;Sleath & Bull, 2012;Spohn & Tellis, 2012a). Both rape myths and the focal concerns perspective relate to how sexual assault is socially constructed.…”

“…A substantial portion of sexual assaults occur when the victim has been drinking and/or using drugs (Abbey, Zawacki, Buck, Clinton, & McAuslan, 2004). Assaults that involve drug and/or alcohol use are less likely to move through the criminal justice system when compared to assaults that do not involve drug and/or alcohol use (R. Campbell, 1998;Morabito et al, 2016). This may be because victims are more likely to be blamed for the assault if they are under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol (Sims, Noel, & Maisto, 2007;Untied, Orchowski, them appear less credible as witnesses in court.…”

“…Unfortunately, reforms in both policy and practice have not produced the effects that they were intended to produce. Specifically, cases of sexual assault remain both underreported and under-prosecuted (R. Campbell, Wasco, Ahrens, Sefl, & Barnes, 2001; Morabito, Pattavina, & Williams, 2016).…”