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Abstract
Extant research overwhelmingly indicates that victim cooperation influences case outcomes in both sexual assault and intimate partner violence cases. However, no studies have examined cooperation decisions in intimate partner sexual assault (IPSA) cases. This study uses data on sexual assaults reported to Los Angeles law enforcement in 2008 to address this issue. Because the contextual factors associated with sexual assault can vary dramatically depending on the suspect-victim relationship, this study estimates a model of victim cooperation that includes factors unique to IPSA. Additionally, the current research discusses how police practices and perceptions likely interact with victim characteristics to affect victim cooperation decisions. Quantitative findings are supplemented with a qualitative analysis of the reasons victims reported for declining to cooperate.
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to express her gratitude to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, both of which provided the redacted case files used for this study. The author would also like to thank the data providers: Dr. Cassia Spohn of Arizona State University and Dr. Katharine Tellis of California State University, Los Angeles. Finally, the author would like to extend many thanks to the reviewers; they provided instrumental feedback on this research.
Notes
1 The majority of victims in the current sample were adults (n = 149).
2 Because the decision to record information is at the discretion of law enforcement, case files included varying levels of information. In some cases, even specific report fields listed on the form were left blank (SRPI was used to handle missing data). Overall, the level of detail in each file generally represents information that the officer was aware of and felt was important to note.
3 Victims that engage in risk-taking behavior may decide to not report their assault to police.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Eryn Nicole O’Neal
Eryn Nicole O’Neal is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Sam Houston State University. Her research has appeared in a variety of scholarly journals, including Violence Against Women, Feminist Criminology, Women & Criminal Justice, and Journal of Interpersonal Violence. In 2015, she received the American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division on Women and Crime (DWC) Graduate Scholar Award for her research contributions to the field of women and crime.