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Gender Difference or Indifference? Detective Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases

SAGE Publications Inc
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
Authors:
Megan Alderden at DePaul University
Megan Alderden
Sarah E. Ullman
Sarah E. Ullman
Sarah E. Ullman
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Abstract and Figures

Prior research examining sexual assault case decision making has failed to account for the demographic characteristics of the criminal justice practitioners charged with making case decisions. Inclusion of such information is important because it provides researchers with a greater understanding of how criminal justice practitioners’ own gender, race, age, and past experiences affect their judgments. This study seeks to examine whether gender differences exist in detectives’ arrest decisions in sexual assault cases. Victim, suspect, incident, and detective characteristics are collected from police case and investigatory files on 328 criminal sexual assault cases involving adult female victims reported to a large Midwestern police department in 2003. Logistic regression is used to determine whether detective gender predicted the odds of arrest after controlling for incident, victim, and suspect characteristics. It is hypothesized that cases involving female detectives would be more likely to result in arrest after controlling for other incident, victim, and suspect characteristics. However, contrary to expectations, female detectives are significantly less likely than male detectives to arrest suspects in sexual assault cases even after controlling for the influence of other factors shown to predict arrest. The findings support prior research that suggests female practitioners may not necessarily be more sensitive toward female victims despite previous assumptions that this would hold true. The findings suggest that efforts to hire female police officers for the purposes of dealing with female-related victimization may ultimately undermine efforts to improve victim experiences with the criminal justice system. They further suggest that both researchers and police administrators need to rethink the best ways to serve female victims beyond hiring mandates.
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Journal of Interpersonal Violence
27(1) 3 –22
© The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/0886260511416465
http://jiv.sagepub.com
416465JIV27110.1177/0886260511416465Alderd
en and UllmanJournal of Interpersonal Violence
© The Author(s) 2012
Reprints and permission: http://www.
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1Saint Xavier University, Chicago
2University of Illinois at Chicago
Corresponding Author:
Megan A. Alderden, 3700 West 103rd Street, Chicago, IL 60655
Email: alderden@sxu.edu
Gender Difference or
Indifference? Detective
Decision Making in
Sexual Assault Cases
Megan A. Alderden1 and Sarah E. Ullman2
Abstract
Prior research examining sexual assault case decision making has failed to
account for the demographic characteristics of the criminal justice practitio-
ners charged with making case decisions. Inclusion of such information is impor-
tant because it provides researchers with a greater understanding of how
criminal justice practitioners’ own gender, race, age, and past experiences
affect their judgments. This study seeks to examine whether gender differ-
ences exist in detectives’ arrest decisions in sexual assault cases. Victim, sus-
pect, incident, and detective characteristics are collected from police case
and investigatory files on 328 criminal sexual assault cases involving adult
female victims reported to a large Midwestern police department in 2003.
Logistic regression is used to determine whether detective gender predicted
the odds of arrest after controlling for incident, victim, and suspect charac-
teristics. It is hypothesized that cases involving female detectives would be
more likely to result in arrest after controlling for other incident, victim, and
suspect characteristics. However, contrary to expectations, female detectives
are significantly less likely than male detectives to arrest suspects in sexual
assault cases even after controlling for the influence of other factors shown
to predict arrest. The findings support prior research that suggests female
practitioners may not necessarily be more sensitive toward female victims
Article
... To address this issue, practitioners and advocates have called for improved responses to sexual assault cases (Feild, 1978), encouraging scholars to study the correlates of practitioner decision-making (Bouffard, 2000;Kerstetter, 1990;Kingsnorth, MacIntosh, & Wentworth, 1999;LaFree, 1981). Practitioner decision making studies have focused largely on victim, suspect, and case characteristics, as well as practitioner evaluations of victim credibility to explain decisions (Alderden & Ullman, 2012b;Beichner & Spohn, 2005;Beichner & Spohn, 2012;B. Campbell, Menaker, & King, 2015;Kaiser, O'Neal, & Spohn, 2017;O'Neal, Beckman, & Spohn, 2019;Spohn, Beichner, & Davis-Frenzel, 2001;Spohn & Tellis, 2019). ...
... Indeed, largely using samples of reported sexual assault, scholars have analyzed relevant characteristics linked to decision-making and have found practitioners relied on both case and extralegal characteristics. Existing literature on the impact of case and extralegal characteristics have been mixed, however, and some have found availability of physical evidence, presences of witness(es), victim injury, offender weapon use, prompt report of victimization, victim resistance, high assessment of victim credibility, victim substance use, non-white victims, and non-stranger relationships were significantly and positively related to officers' decisions to arrest (Alderden & Ullman, 2012a, 2012bKaiser et al., 2017;O'Neal et al., 2019;Spohn & Tellis, 2019;Tasca, Rodriguez, Spohn, & Koss, 2013;Venema et al., 2021) and prosecutors' decisions to charge (Beichner & Spohn, 2005;Kerstetter, 1990;Spohn & Holleran, 2001;Wentz & Keimig, 2019). Conversely, others found nonsignificant or negative associations between availability of physical evidence, witness(es) availability, victim injury, offender weapon use, prompt report of victimization, victim resistance, high assessment of victim credibility (e.g., no risktaking behaviors, high moral character, no discrepancies in legal statements, no arrest history), victim substance use, non-white victims, and non-stranger relationships and decisions to arrest (Alderden & Ullman, 2012a;Bouffard, 2000;O'Neal et al., 2019;Scott & Beaman, 2004;Spohn & Tellis, 2019;Wentz, 2020;Ylang & Holtfreter, 2020) or charge a suspect (Bouffard, 2000;Holleran, Beichner, & Spohn, 2010;Kerstetter, 1990;Spears & Spohn, 1997;Spohn & Holleran, 2001;. ...
... Perceptual shorthand included suspect and victim race (e.g., non-White and White), the victim consumed alcohol prior to or during incident, the suspect consumed alcohol prior to or during incident, the victim had motive to lie, and the suspect and victim were married. Studies have reported these extralegal characteristics were both significantly related to arrest (Alderden & Ullman, 2012b;Kaiser et al., 2017;O'Neal et al., 2019) and charging (Beichner & Spohn, 2005;Chandler & Torney, 1981;Kerstetter, 1990;, while others reported they were insignificantly related to arrest (Bouffard, 2000;Scott & Beaman, 2004;Spohn & Tellis, 2019;Wentz & Keimig, 2019) and charging (Frazier & Haney, 1996;Holleran et al., 2010;Spohn & Tellis, 2019). Taken together, some empirical evidence exists warranting the use of focal concerns to explain both police and prosecutor decision-making in sex crimes. ...
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... Relatively less research has been done to examine the link between passive and active representation in terms of gender in policing, and their findings are largely inconsistent (Alderden & Ullman, 2012;Johnston & Houston, 2018;Meier & Nicholson-Crotty, 2006;Miller & Segal, 2019). Some of these studies show that greater female representation among police officers leads to a drop in crimes against women and an increase in law enforcement in dealing with those crimes. ...
... Research has suggested that female police officers have sympathy for the female victims of rape offenses, and thus would use their discretion to ensure that suspects receive the punishment they deserve (Meier & Nicholson-Crotty, 2006; but see Johnston & Houston, 2018). Female officers' role in response to rape offenses can be most clearly demonstrated at the street level given the substantial on-site discretion that street-level officers exert during the process of responding to and investigating offenses (LaFree, 1981;Lapsey Jr. et al., 2021); this is because street-level officers are directly responsible for assessing whether a given violence constitutes criminal sexual assault as prescribed by law and in determining whether to press charges against a suspected offender (Alderden & Ullman, 2012). Specifically , Lapsey Jr. et al. (2021) suggested that the decision to make an arrest often relies on three conditions, including the degree to which the offender can be blamed, how much the offender is perceived as dangerous, and the availability of supporting evidence for the offense. ...
... Officers' judgment on whether the two abovementioned conditions are met (i.e., the blameworthiness of the offender and the perceived dangerousness of the offender) can be highly discretionary. Police officers' individual beliefs and past experiences can deeply influence their decision as to whether a suspect must be condemned and is dangerous enough to warrant immediate arrest; this often leads them to be lenient toward rape offenses that do not fit their beliefs about what a "real rape" should look like (Alderden & Ullman, 2012;Tasca et al., 2013). Female street-level officers will have fewer stereotypes and prejudices about rape offenses based on their life experiences as women and will thus be less selective about which rape cases are not qualified for investing their efforts; rather, their discretion will work in the direction of responding to all rape offenses strictly. ...
Gender representation in police organizations: Do upper‐level and street‐level female bureaucrats differ in their roles?
Article
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Some representative bureaucracy literature has suggested that increasing the share of female bureaucrats, particularly in supervisory positions, would not have a substantial influence on producing policy outcomes in favor of female clients because of the potential impact of organizational socialization. However, there has been little empirical investigation into how passive female representation across hierarchical ranks and its interaction influence policy outcomes for women. By analyzing data on 360 local U.S. police organizations in 2013 and 2016, we found that a higher proportion of female officers in first‐line supervisory level positions was negatively linked to arrest performance for rape offenses, while a higher share of female street‐level officers was not significantly linked to arrest performance for the same offenses. However, we noticed a positive interactive effect of the proportion of female street‐level officers and female officers at the intermediate‐level on rape arrests. These results imply that promoting female representation across different hierarchical ranks in police organizations will help to ensure the benefits of representative bureaucracy.
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... Even if 40% of adolescent sexual assault cases result in a conviction, the majority-60%-do not. Prior research has highlighted that many cases do not result in a conviction because the prosecutors never get to see many sexual assault cases to consider them for charging (e.g., see Alderden & Ullman, 2012;Shaw et al., 2016). For example, in examining adult sexual assault case prosecution in Salt Lake City, Valentine et al. (2016) found that only one third of cases in which the victim chose to seek postassault medical care and report to police were referred to the prosecutor for the consideration of charges. ...
... Research also suggests that most sexual assault cases are not prosecuted or convicted, with the largest source of attrition at the point of police referral to the prosecutor (Alderden & Ullman, 2012;Campbell et al., 2012;Hoffman et al., in press;Shaw et al., 2016;Valentine et al., 2016). Although mandatory reporting policies for adolescent sexual assault cases vary, one model requires reporting of cases to the police and prosecutor. ...
The Impact of Mandatory Reporting Policies on Adolescent Sexual Assault Case Progression in the Criminal Legal System
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2024
While little is known about adolescent sexual assault criminal case progression, available research suggests many cases are not referred to the prosecutor for the consideration of charges. Nuanced mandatory reporting laws that require such referrals have been implemented in some states to facilitate criminal case progression. We used medical and criminal legal system records to determine rates of adolescent sexual assault prosecution for 236 cases involving 12- to 19-year-old victims in one locale. Through a causal comparative design, we also assessed the impact of a specific mandatory reporting policy that requires referral of adolescent cases to the prosecutor on prosecution rates. Overall, 8% of cases in our sample resulted in a conviction. The mandatory reporting policy resulted in significantly more cases being referred to the prosecutor but did not result in more cases being charged or ending with a conviction. These findings align with prior research demonstrating that the criminal legal system continues to provide an inadequate response to sexual assault and suggest that this mandatory reporting policy model may not be a viable solution as it did not have its intended impact. It is important to examine the potential iatrogenic effects of such policies and explore alternative paths toward justice and accountability for victims and their communities.
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... Samuels et al [10] talk about the police focusing too much on assault cases because they inflict injuries. Therefore, it can be ascertained that what matters the most is the seriousness of the offence [12,[18][19][20]. Lee et al [14] seem to confirm this assertion as they report high odds of arrest decision-making in serious domestic violence cases due to the presence of injuries. ...
... Further, this study did not find any significant support for victim/perpetrator relationship and police officers' profiles to have an effect on arrest decision-making [34]. Other studies claim that being in an intimate relationship increases the likelihood of an arrest [11,19] and being a male police officer increases chances that a decision to arrest would be made [39]. ...
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Domestic violence is among the most prevalent forms of violence globally. It includes physical violence, emotional violence, sexual violence and economic violence. Several studies focusing on arrest decisions are conducted in the West; unfortunately, there is a dearth of studies focusing on domestic violence in Zambia especially on factors that influence arrest decision-making. This study was conceived to examine whether legal and extra-legal factors have an influence on the Zambia police service officers’ decision-making in domestic violence cases reported to them. Data consisting of 1258 cases of domestic violence from 2017-2019 were collected from five urban police stations in Lusaka city. In this study, we used univariate, bivariate and multiple logistic regression analysis to examine police officers’ decision-making in domestic violence cases. Descriptive results show that arrest rates are high in physical violence (13.20%), economic violence (9.46%), sexual violence (5.41%) and emotional violence (3.18%). Whilst the age of the victim, perpetrator ethnicity and the gender of police officers were found to be non-significant, strong predictors of arrest decision-making in a logistic analysis were found to be victim tribe, residential area, perpetrator age and type of domestic violence. Policy strategies and efforts should be channelled towards advocacy and awareness programmes across the communities and should not neglect the participation of victim support unit (VSU) police officers. Therefore, the Victim support unit should be appropriately funded to enhance awareness campaigns and educational programmes. Additionally, the police command should find ways of navigating around victims’ preferences in arrest decisions whilst respecting and upholding human rights and ethical standards.
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