Abstract
Research on sexual assault case outcomes typically limits the analysis of police decision making to cases formally cleared by arrest and of prosecutorial decision making to charging decisions that follow the arrest of the suspect. We argue that this approach, which ignores the fact that police and prosecutorial decisions overlap and influence one another, can lead to misleading conclusions about the factors that influence sexual assault case outcomes. We use data on sexual assaults reported in Los Angeles to address this issue. We define both the police decision to arrest and the prosecutor’s decision to charge in multiple ways. Our findings illustrate that the conclusions we draw about the factors that influence sexual assault case outcomes depend to some extent on the conceptualization and operationalization of decisions to arrest and charge.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alderden, M. A., & Ullman, S. E. (2012). Creating a more complete and current picture: Examining police and prosecutor decision making when processing sexual assault cases. Violence Against Women, 18, 525–551.
Bachman, R. (1998). Factors related to rape reporting and arrest: New evidence from the NCVS. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 25, 8–29.
Black, D. J. (1976). The behavior of law. New York: Academic Press.
Black, D. J. (1980). Manners and customs of the police. New York: Academic Press.
Black, D. J. (1989). Sociological justice. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bouffard, J. (2000). Predicting type of sexual assault case closure from victim, suspect, and case characteristics. Journal of Criminal Justice, 28, 527–542.
Du Mont, J., Miller, K.-L., & Myhr, T. L. (2003). The role of “real rape” and “real victim” stereotypes in the police reporting practices of sexually assaulted women. Violence Against Women, 9, 466–486.
Du Mont, J., & Myhr, T. L. (2000). So few convictions: The role of client-related characteristics in the legal processing of sexual assaults. Violence Against Women, 6, 1109–1136.
Estrich, S. (1987). Real rape. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2004). Uniform crime reporting handbook. Washington, DC: U.S. Government.
Feldman-Summers, S., & Lindner, K. (1976). Perceptions of victims and defendants in criminal assault cases. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 3, 135–150.
Field, H., & Bienen, L. (1980). Jurors and rape: A study in psychology and law. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Frazier, P. A., & Haney, B. (1996). Sexual assault cases in the legal system: Police, prosecutor and victim perspectives. Law and Human Behavior, 20, 607–628.
Frohmann, L. (1991). Discrediting victims’ allegations of sexual assault: Prosecutorial accounts of case rejections. Social Problems, 38, 213–226.
Frohmann, L. (1997). Convictability and discordant locales: Reproducing race, class, and gender ideologies in prosecutorial decision-making. Law & Society Review, 31, 531–555.
Holleran, D., Beichner, D., & Spohn, C. (2010). Modeling the charging agreement between the police and prosecutors in sexual assault. Crime and Delinquency, 56, 385–413.
Horney, J., & Spohn, C. (1996). The influence of blame and believability factors on the processing of simple versus aggravated rape cases. Criminology, 34, 135–162.
Jacoby, J. E. (1980). The American prosecutor: The search for identity. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Johnson, B. D., & Betsinger, S. (2009). Punishing the ‘model minority’: Asian-American criminal sentencing outcomes in federal district courts. Criminology, 47, 1045–1090.
Kerstetter, W. A. (1990). Gateway to justice: Police and prosecutorial response to sexual assaults against women. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 81, 267–313.
Kingsnorth, R., MacIntosh, R. C., & Wentworth, J. (1999). Sexual assault: The role of prior relationship and victim characteristics in case processing. Justice Quarterly, 16, 275–302.
LaFree, G. (1981). Official reactions to social problems: Police decisions in sexual assault cases. Social Problems, 28, 582–594.
LaFree, G. (1989). Rape and criminal justice: The social construction of sexual assault. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Martin, P. Y., & Powell, R. M. (1994). Accounting for the “second assault”: Legal organizations’ framing of rape victims. Law and Social Inquiry, 19, 853–890.
McCahill, T. W., Meyer, L. C., & Fischman, A. M. (1979). The aftermath of rape. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Reskin, B., & Visher, C. (1986). The impacts of evidence and extralegal factors in jurors’ decisions. Law & Society Review, 20, 423–438.
Schuller, R. A., & Stewart, A. (2000). Police responses to sexual assault complaints: The role of perpetrator/complainant intoxication. Law and Human Behavior, 24, 535–551.
Spohn, C., Beichner, D., & Davis-Frenzel, E. (2001). Prosecutorial explanations for sexual assault case rejection: Guarding the gateway to justice. Social Problems, 48, 206–235.
Spohn, C., & Holleran, D. (2001). Prosecuting sexual assault: Comparison charging decisions in sexual assault cases involving strangers, acquaintances, and intimate partners. Justice Quarterly, 18, 651–689.
Spohn, C., & Horney, J. (1992). Rape law reform: A grassroots movement and its impact. New York: Plenum Press.
Spohn, C., & Tellis, K. (2012). Policing and Prosecuting Sexual Assault in Los Angeles City and County: A Collaborative Study in Partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. National Institute of Justice. Award No. 2009-WG-BX-0009. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/237582.pdf
Spohn, C., & Tellis, K. (2014). Policing and prosecuting sexual assault: Inside the criminal justice system. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Spohn, C., & Tellis, K. (2018). Sexual assault case outcomes: Disentangling the overlapping decisions of police and prosecutors. Justice Quarterly,. Published online February 19. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2018.1429645
Spohn, C., White, C., & Tellis, K. (2014). Unfounding sexual assault: Examining the decision to unfound and identifying false reports. Law & Society Review, 48, 161–192.
Steffensmeier, D., Ulmer, J., & Kramer, J. (1997). The interaction of race, gender and age in criminal sentencing: The punishment cost of being young, black, and male. Criminology, 36, 763–798.
Taylor, J. (1987). Rape and women’s credibility: Problems of recantations and false accusations echoed in the case of Cathleen Crowell Webb and Gary Dotson. Harvard Women’s Law Journal, 10, 59–115.
Tellis, K., & Spohn, C. (2008). The sexual stratification hypothesis revisited: Testing assumptions about simple versus aggravate rape. Journal of Criminal Justice, 36, 252–261.
Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (2006). Extent, nature, and consequences of rape victimization: Findings from the national violence against women survey. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tellis, K., Spohn, C. (2019). Policing Sexual Assault: Lessons Learned in Los Angeles. In: O’Donohue, W.T., Schewe, P.A. (eds) Handbook of Sexual Assault and Sexual Assault Prevention. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23645-8_34
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23645-8_34
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-23644-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-23645-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)