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Rape investigation and attrition in acquaintance, domestic violence and historical rape cases
Author(s) -
Hester Marianne,
Lilley SarahJane
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of investigative psychology and offender profiling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1544-4767
pISSN - 1544-4759
DOI - 10.1002/jip.1469
Subject(s) - attrition , criminology , psychology , criminal justice , vulnerability (computing) , economic justice , domestic violence , social psychology , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , political science , law , medical emergency , computer security , medicine , dentistry , computer science
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.