Nccd Research Review : Attrition in Case Processing Is Rape Unique?

Abstract

In the current literature on rape, frequent reference is made to the attrition of rape cases as these move through the criminal justice system. The present study draws upon national and California secondary data, first, to establish if the hypothesized attrition occurs at key points in the justice system for rape offenses, and then, second, to determine if this attrition is unique from or similar to that experienced with other major felonies. The general conclusion is that, while there is considerable loss of rape cases between the point of initial reporting of an incident to the police and the court sentencing stage, this loss cannot be described as unique to rape. While probably somewhat more rape cases experience attrition in the justice system than is true for homicide, rape seems to show a level of loss comparable to robbery at most points, and certainly lower levels of loss than assault or burglary. These findings hold across time and jurisdictions.It is commonly argued that a distinctive and selective bias operates in the processing of rape cases by the criminal justice system, such that relatively small numbers of rape cases move through the system. Bias is seen as appearing at each of the major points in the criminal justice process. Scroggs, for example, observes (1976:360):Women's rights advocates have called attention to the unfair treatment accorded rape victims by both the police and the courts.... Only a small percentage of those rapists who are brought to trial are convicted. Somewhat more forcefully, Robin (1977:136) argues:Forcible rape is unique among crimes in the manner in which its victims are dealt with by the criminal justice system. Raped women are subjected to an

Attrition in Danish rape reported crimes

“…Consistent with other studies, we found that the majority of rape cases were closed in the initial phases of the legal system by the police and the prosecution (Alderden & Ullman, 2012;Brown et al, 2007;Frazier & Haney, 1996;Gregory & Lees, 1996). Furthermore, results from our study and the newest studies on attrition in rape crimes seem quite similar to findings reported 30 years ago (Galvin & Polk, 1983;La Free, 1980;Myers & LaFree, 1982). As such, current research indicates that the attrition pattern in rape crimes is unfolding in a seemingly predictable way across different countries and that the pattern has not changed markedly during the last few decades.…”

The impact of race on the adjudication of sexual assault and other violent crimes

“…During the 1980s, Myers and LaFree (1982), Galvin and Polk (1983), Polk (1985), Steffensmeier (1988), and Bachman and Paternoster (1993) also found that the processing of sexual assault was not unique when compared to other violent crimes. In other words, sexual assault was and continues to be appropriately placed on a continuum of sanctions where it is treated leniently compared to murder, but more punitively compared to other violent felonies.…”

“…Polk compared this rate with rates for other felonies (including homicide, robbery, assault, and burglary) to show that this finding was not a result of a shift toward a more punitive climate in California generally, but was unique to sexual assault cases. Another study using the same data (Galvin & Polk, 1983) found that California's rate of imprisonment for sexual assault (49 percent) was substantially lower than that for homicide (74 percent) and slightly lower than robbery (56 percent), but higher than assault (25 percent) and burglary (29 percent) rates.…”

“…The most pressing problem with extant research is the lack of comparative analyses of sexual assault versus other violent felonies, conducted on recently collected nationally represented data, using multiple adjudication and sentencing outcomes. Of the studies that compared the criminal justice processing of sexual assault to other violent crimes (Bachman & Paternoster, 1993;Galvin & Polk, 1983;Myers & LaFree, 1982;Polk, 1985;Simon, 1996;Steffensmeier, 1988), only one used nation-wide data (see Bachman & Paternoster, 1993) and most were single-jurisdiction studies. Furthermore, even the most generalizable research by Bachman and Paternoster was conducted on data collected from the early 1970s to the late 1980s.…”

The Controversy Over Pornography and Sex Crimes: The Criminological Evidence and Beyond

“…The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago in a study of victims in a survey of 10,000 households in 1970 suggested that only about 25% of "forcible rapes" were reported (Morris and Hawkins, 1979:60-61), though this estimate was later determined to be based on only 15 cases of rape uncovered by the survey (Hindelang and Davis, 1977:89). Galvin and Polk (1983) report that victimization studies in California in the mid-1970s discovered that about 55% of rape victims reported to the police. In a similar victim survey for the US National Crime Panel it was reported that 56% of the victims of rape had actually reported the offence to the police, implying that 44% had not (McCaghey, 1980:119).3 Compounding matters were two additional factors: since this survey was based on urban centres it arguably overestimated the frequency of unreported crime.…”