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

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Abstract
Responsibility for arrest and charging makes police influential agents in the offical processing of sexual-assault cases. Recent research offers three competing models of police decisions: the legal model suggests that police do not discriminate between victims on the basis of extralegal attributes; the extralegal model suggests that police do discriminate; and the change model suggests that reliance on extralegal determinants declines with growing awareness of rape as a social problem. These models were tested on 905 sexual-assault complaints to police in a large, midwestern city over six years. The data showed that the most important determinants of arrest, charge seriousness and felony screening were legal. Suspects received more serious outcomes when: (1) the victim was able to identify a suspect, (2) the victim was willing to testify, (3) the incident included sexual penetration, (4) charges were more serious, and (5) the incident included a weapon. Extralegal variables had less effect than legal variables on all three police decisions. Also, reorganization of the police department did not change arrest and felony filing rates or, for the most part, criteria used for making processing decisions.

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