University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2014 Jan;29(1):144-56. doi: 10.1177/0886260513504648. Epub 2013 Oct 3.
Prior research examining sexual assault case attrition has focused on the processing of cases across the justice system. Studies have examined arrest decision making and prosecutorial decision making in an attempt to better understand where and when cases drop out of the system. Less explored are police reporting practices during the initial stage of processing for cases in which the officer stated that the victim chose to drop her case. We addressed this gap in the literature by reviewing law enforcement incident reports at their onset, specifically; we examine reports of cases in which the officer reported the victim chose to drop the case. Results indicated that of the 125 cases of sexual assault reported to the police, 41 reports (32.8%) stated that the victim decided to no longer pursue charges. However, few police reports (30.2%) provided a clear rationale for why the victim decided to no longer pursue charges. Results of this study call for more standardized police reporting practices and point to the need for future research into the initial stage of law enforcement involvement in adult sexual assault cases.
先前研究审查性侵犯案件流失主要集中在整个司法系统的案件处理上。研究已经审查了逮捕决策和检察决策，试图更好地了解案件在何处以及何时退出系统。较少探索的是在案件处理的初始阶段警察报告做法，在这些案件中，警察表示受害者选择撤销案件。我们通过审查执法事件报告来解决文献中的这一空白，具体来说；我们检查报告中警察报告受害者选择撤销案件的案例。结果表明，在向警方报告的 125 起性侵犯案件中，有 41 份报告（32.8%）表示受害者决定不再追究指控。然而，很少有警察报告（30.2%）提供了受害者决定不再追究指控的明确理由。这项研究的结果呼吁制定更标准化的警察报告做法，并指出需要对执法部门介入成年性侵犯案件的初始阶段进行进一步研究。
