1 University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA.
2 Wellesley Centers for Women, MA, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2019 Aug;34(15):3151-3170. doi: 10.1177/0886260516669164. Epub 2016 Sep 27.
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.
性侵犯案件的漏报是研究人员、从业者和受害者都熟知的现象。当受害者报案时，他们的投诉很可能不会导致逮捕或起诉。现有关于警察自由裁量权的研究表明，警方决定对性侵犯犯罪进行逮捕可能会受到各种法律和非法律因素的影响，特别是对受害者可信度的质疑。尽管现有文献研究了个人行为对警察结果的影响，但对于这些行为、归因和特征的积累如何影响警察决策知之甚少。我们使用从洛杉矶警察局和治安官部门收集的数据，研究了一个警察决策点——逮捕，以填补该文献中的空白。首先，我们检查了基于受害者特征和行为的对受害者可信度的潜在质疑对逮捕决定的影响程度，接下来，检查了这些预测因素在不同情况下的变化。具体来说，我们检查了在受害者和犯罪者是陌生人、熟人以及亲密伴侣的性侵犯案件中，质疑受害者可信度的因素如何影响逮捕的可能性。
