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Abstract
Despite several decades of institutional reforms in sexual assault policing, sexual assault police investigators continue to dismiss a disproportionate number of sexual assault reports as unfounded. This article examines the policing practices behind these trends by outlining the techniques that police use to assess the credibility and truthfulness of survivors’ reports of sexual assault. Drawing on 17 semistructured interviews with sexual assault investigators working in urban policing organizations in Ontario, Canada, this article reveals how investigative techniques in sexual assault cases often rest on normative assumptions about who real survivors are and how they behave. Through this analysis, this article illustrates how survivors of sexual assault can become suspect in sexual assault investigations.
Notes
“TV behavior,” according to Baeza and Turvey (Citation2002), encompasses anything that could be defined as “mimicking the way that stereotypical victims act on television … (hysterical, demanding a female officer, catatonic, etc.)” (p. 177).
Although this sample included both male and female investigators, a consideration of the gendered dynamics of policing practice is beyond the scope of this particular article. For further discussion on this topic, see Rich and Seffrin (Citation2014) and Alderden and Ullman (Citation2012).
This training course was referred to in an interview with one of the study's participants.
Section 14(1)(l) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Letter from Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, June 11, 2002, Freedom of Information Request No. CSCS-A-2012-01832.
This practice harks back to a time in Canadian legal history when the legal doctrine of recent complaint pervaded and women who did not report sexual assault at the first available opportunity were identified in court as probable liars. Although that doctrine was formally eliminated in 1983, these data suggest that its remnants remain in police practice.
Survivors’ memories can be significantly impaired when a sexual assault is facilitated by drugs. The interview data in this study suggest that investigators’ expectations for survivors’ memories are significantly less in these cases.
In forensic exams, forensic medical examiners collect bodily fluids and document physical injuries on a survivor's body, a process that can last up to 4 to 6 hr. The evidence collected can be used to identify perpetrators of sexual assault with DNA analysis, confirm recent sexual activity, and demonstrate a survivor's level of intoxication during the assault.
For more discussion on survivors’ decision making around forensic exams, see Du Mont, White, and McGregor (Citation2009), Doe (Citation2012), and Mulla (Citation2014).