Within recent years, considerable attention has focused upon the appropriate criminal justice response to cases of child sexual abuse. The present article examines prosecutorial discretion for sexual abuse under the domain of a recent mandatory district attorney reporting law (Massachusetts Chapter 288). Utilizing case files for one metropolitan jurisdiction, this research analyzes the reasons cited for the screening decision not to prosecute sexual abuse and the related use of informal dispositions in these cases. The study found that 45% of the cases referred to this prosecutor's office resulted in a nonprosecution decision. The primary reasons given were witness noncooperation and evidentiary problems, which were cited in over two-thirds of the cases. For all but two of these nonprosecuted cases, some informal disposition took place. For most, the alleged perpetrator was out of the victim's home, with another third involving a restraining or no visitation order against the accused offender, or the removal of the victim from the home. Thus, although formal criminal court prosecution was recommended in just over one-half of the cases, some form of family intervention to reduce the “at-risk” situation for the child victim took place in virtually all of the cases. These results suggest the importance of considering informal, discretionary techniques and dispositions as well as formal actions in evaluating a criminal justice response to child sexual abuse.
Considerable discussion has focused upon the appropriateness and efficacy of criminal justice intervention in cases of family violence in recent years. Particular concerns regarding possible criminal court action for child sexual abuse include issues dealing with the age of the victim, the intra- or extrafamilial relationship between the victim and alleged offender, and the nature and seriousness of the abuse, as well as broader issues of criminal justice policy and social service involvement. This article examines initial prosecutorial decision making for child sexual abuse focusing upon the role of these issues in official judgments about case screening. The data for this research were collected within the context of the Massachusetts District Attorney Reporting Law (“Chapter 288”). This 1983 bill was designed to increase criminal justice system involvement in the handling of “serious” child abuse cases by mandating the referral to prosecutors of substantiated cases. Utilizing a metropolitan Boston County District Attorney's Office as the research site (“South” County), this study reports on documentary data from prosecutor case files for a random sample of sexual abuse cases. The results indicate that the initial screening point is a crucial decision-making stage for prosecution and that specific case features related to the victim, perpetrator, and the nature of the sexual abuse are important in understanding prosecutorial decisions for case attrition. Implications of these findings for research and policy on criminal justice decision making for child sexual abuse are discussed.
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