Predicting type of sexual assault case closure from victim, suspect, and case characteristics
✍ Scribed by Jeffrey A Bouffard
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 144 KB
- Volume
- 28
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0047-2352
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Relatively little research has examined the impact of victim, suspect and case characteristics on the probability of various case closures in regard to personal crimes requiring police investigation. The present article examines the effect of individual and case characteristics (i.e. victim ± offender relationship, initially available evidence) on the police unfounding decision, and the probability of four other types of case closure (Arrest, Exceptional due to lack of victim cooperation, Exceptional due to lack of ``prosecutorial merit'', and Open) among a sample of felony sexual assault cases. Using data from a large municipal police department's sexual assault investigative unit, results indicate that the race of the victim and suspect plays no role in determining any of the case outcomes in this sample, while prior relationship does appear to have a strong impact. Variable impacts for indicators of the strength of evidence, victim's cooperation, and the seriousness of the case are also discussed.