A question of evidence? Investigating and prosecuting rape in the 1990s: Home Office research study 196

Harris, Jessica

doi:10.1037/e452592008-001

Cited by 64 publications

(114 citation statements)

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“…At the time of data collection 15% of non-withdrawn cases were awaiting trial. Similar to previous studies (Kelly et al, 2005;Lea at al., 2003;Harris and Grace, 1999), we found that victim withdrawal accounts for almost half of the attrition, with most victims withdrawing early in the process, and withdrawal becoming less likely once the case was referred to the CPS for charge. The analyses presented here identified some correlates of victim withdrawal, chiefly the relationship between the victim and the police officers on the case.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Attrition is highest at the early stages of the police investigation, with victim withdrawal accounting for a large proportion of the attrition (Grace et al, 1992;Harris and Grace, 1999;HMCPSI and HMIC, 2002;Lea et al, 2003;Kelly, 2002;Kelly et al, 2005;HMCPSI and HMIC, 2007;Stanko and Williams, 2009;Stern, 2010;Hester, 2013). Comparable studies outside England and Wales point to similar patterns (Jordan, 2004;Hanly et al, 2009;Lovett and Kelly, 2009).…”

Section: The Attrition Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is estimated that only around 6-18% of rapes in England and Wales are reported to the police (Brown et al, 2007;Myhill and Allen, 2002;Stern, 2010). Many allegations are withdrawn soon after they have been made (Gregory and Lees, 1996;Harris and Grace, 1999;Kelly, 2002;Kelly et al, 2005;Jordan, 2004;Hester, 2013), despite false allegations being extremely rare (CPS, 2013; see also Kelly, 2010 andSaunders, 2012 for a discussion). The barriers to reporting a rape and reasons to withdraw are numerous.…”

Section: Pathways To Attritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whilst the body of literature on the impact of particular aspects of the rape complaint on attrition is growing steadily and remains a topic for global dialogue about women's gendered justice, the number of large-scale empirical attrition studies for England and Wales is more limited. Key publications here date back to the 1990s (Grace et al, 1992;Harris and Grace, 1999) and were followed by a number of government-body commissioned reports in the early 2000s (HMCPSI and HMIC, 2002;Kelly, 2002;Kelly et al, 2005;HMCPSI and HMIC, 2007). The most recent and frequently cited Stern Report, a governmentcommissioned report to stipulate new avenues for practice published in 2010, is a review and does not contain fresh empirical evidence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With a conviction rate as low as 7% (Home Office and Ministry of Justice data, 2013) -one of the lowest in Europe (Lovett and Kelly 2009) -one might argue that in England and Wales rape is effectively "decriminalized" (Gregory and Lees, 1999: 91). Research has sought to establish not only the extent of the attrition, but also the factors that explain it (Grace et al, 1992;Harris and Grace, 1999;Gregory and Lees, 1999;HMCPSI and HMIC, 2002;Kelly, 2002;Lea et al, 2003;Jordan, 2004;Kelly et al, 2005;Brown et al, 2007;HMCPSI and HMIC, 2007;Lovett et al, 2007;Daly and Bouhours, 2010;Stern, 2010;Hester, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Complaints of rape and the criminal justice system: Fresh evidence on the attrition problem in England and Wales

Hohl

Stanko

2015

European Journal of Criminology

137

152

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Citation: Hohl, K. & Stanko, E. (2015). Complaints of rape and the criminal justice system: Fresh evidence on the attrition problem in England and Wales. European Journal of Criminology, 12(3), pp. 324-341. doi: 10.1177/1477370815571949 This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent AbstractThe UK has one of the lowest conviction rates for rape in Europe. This article presents unique evidence on the factors that influence the attrition of rape allegations in the English criminal justice system. The study is based on a large, representative sample of rape allegations reported to the London Metropolitan Police, the UK's biggest police force. The dataset contains unprecedented detail on the incident, victim, suspect and police investigation. The results lend support to the influence of some rape myths and stereotypes on attrition. These findings suggest that further central factors include the ethnicity of the suspect as well as what police officers and prosecutors perceive as evidence against the truthfulness of the allegation: the police record noting a previous false allegation by the victim, inconsistencies in the victim's account of the alleged rape, and evidence or police opinion casting doubt on the allegation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: The Attrition Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pathways To Attritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Complaints of rape and the criminal justice system: Fresh evidence on the attrition problem in England and Wales

Hohl

Stanko

2015

European Journal of Criminology

137

152

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Can Serial Rapists be Distinguished from One‐off Rapists?

Slater

Woodhams

Hamilton‐Giachritsis

2013

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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There are investigative advantages to being able to determine early in a police investigation whether a rape has been committed by a serial or a one-off rapist. Previous research has found some differences in the crime-scene behaviors of serial and one-off rapists; however, this research suffers from the limitation of utilizing a sample of rapes within which there was a mixture of victim-offender relationships. To address this limitation, this study sampled 38 serial (two or more convictions) and 50 one-off (one conviction) stranger rapists and compared their crime scene behavior across four domains (control, sex, escape and style behaviors). Serial and one-off rapists differed in some control and sexual behaviors, in particular, in the type of victim targeted, the offense locations, methods of control and the sexual acts forced upon the victim. However, the results did not indicate a striking difference in the offending behavior of the two groups. The implications of these findings for criminal investigations are discussed.

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Rape investigation and attrition in acquaintance, domestic violence and historical rape cases

Hester

Lilley

2016

Journal Invest Psychology

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This paper looks at the progression of rape cases through the criminal justice system, from report to court, exploring the different attrition trajectories for cases that can be characterized as involving acquaintance, intimate domestic violence, and historical child sexual abuse contexts. Using police data from three police forces in England covering 87 cases, interviews relating to 15 victim/survivors and interviews with criminal justice professional, the paper explores investigative processes and victim engagement across rape cases and their different trajectories through the criminal justice system. The legal and extra‐legal factors that have been identified in the previous literature as increasing attrition, such as relationship between victim and offender, vulnerability of victim, and evidential issues, were all seen to play some part in the attrition and trajectories of the cases discussed here, but were relevant to different degrees depending on whether the cases involved acquaintance, intimate domestic violence, or historical child sexual abuse. If we are to more effectively deal with the “justice gap” that exists in rape cases, an important aspect is to understand the differences between these groups of cases and the particular circumstance and needs of the victims in these different contexts.

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A question of evidence? Investigating and prosecuting rape in the 1990s: Home Office research study 196

Cited by 64 publications

References 0 publications

Complaints of rape and the criminal justice system: Fresh evidence on the attrition problem in England and Wales

Complaints of rape and the criminal justice system: Fresh evidence on the attrition problem in England and Wales

Can Serial Rapists be Distinguished from One‐off Rapists?

Rape investigation and attrition in acquaintance, domestic violence and historical rape cases

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