Official Reactions to Social Problems - Police Decisions in Sexual Assault Cases

• NCJ Number: 79177
• Journal: Social Problems Volume: 28 Issue: 5 Dated: (June 1981) Pages: 582-594
• Author(s): G D Lafree
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 13 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01 MH297-01A1
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA, 1980.

Annotation

The study tested three competing police decision models on 905 sexual assault complaints to police in a large, mid-western city over 6 years to determine what factors affect police processing decisions.

Abstract

The legal model suggests that police do not discriminate between victims on the basis of extralegal attributes; the extralegal model suggests that they do discriminate; and the change model asserts that reliance on extralegal determinants declines with growing awareness of rape as a social problem. The data show that legal determinants dominantly affected arrest, charge seriousness, and felony screening. Suspects received more serious outcomes when the victim was able to identify a suspect and was able to testify, when the incident included sexual penetration and a weapon, and when charges were more serious. Extralegal variables and reorganization of the police department had less effect than legal variables on all three police decisions. Tables, footnotes, and 46 references are included. (Author abstract modified)