Modeling the Effects of Victim Behavior and Moral Character on Prosecutors’ Charging Decisions in Sexual Assault Cases

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Beichner ◽  
Cassia Spohn
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Moral Character ◽  
Substantial Effect ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
Case File ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Dichotomous Variable ◽  
Prior Record ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Modeling Strategy

Prior research, modeling the effects of the victim’s behavior and character on prosecutors’ charging decisions, has used either a dichotomous variable that reflects the presence of any risky behavior or moral character issues or an additive index that captures the number of related items in a case file. We suggest that these measures do not adequately identify the specific issues that prosecutors take into consideration when making charging decisions. Using data on 666 sexual assault cases that resulted in arrest in three urban jurisdictions and a multivariate modeling strategy, we examine specific risk-taking behaviors and issues related to the victim’s moral character in an effort to determine if certain behaviors and characteristics have a more substantial effect on charging decisions than others. We also examine the extent to which the effects of these blame and believability factors vary based on the nature of the cases. Our results reveal that although charging decisions in stranger cases are largely determined by legally relevant factors, these decisions in nonstranger cases are affected by several legally irrelevant victim characteristics: whether the victim had a prior criminal record, whether the victim had been drinking alcohol prior to the assault, and whether the victim invited the suspect to her residence. Further analysis, however, revealed that only the victim’s prior record had a differential effect on charging decisions in cases involving strangers and nonstrangers and in aggravated and simple rape cases. Our results suggest that the focal concerns that guide prosecutors’ charging decisions incorporate specific victim behaviors and background characteristics.

Focal Concerns and Intimate Partner Violence Case Processing: Predicting Arrest Using a Stratified Random Sample of Police Case File Data

2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110104
Author(s):  
Cortney A. Franklin ◽  
Leana A. Bouffard ◽  
Alondra D. Garza ◽  
Amanda Goodson
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Criminal History ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression Model ◽  
Case File ◽  
Focal Concerns

Focal concerns has utility for explaining criminal justice decisions, including among police. At present, there is no research that has examined focal concerns and arrest decisions in non-sexual, intimate partner violence (IPV) cases. This study used a stratified random sample of 776 IPV incidents from an urban police department in one of the five largest and most diverse US cities to assess the effect of focal concerns on arrest. A multivariate binary logistic regression model demonstrated victim injury, suspect IPV and general criminal history, evidence, witnesses, victim preference for formal intervention, women victims, and intoxicated suspects predicted arrest. When the suspect was on scene, this was the strongest predictor of arrest. Implications and future research are discussed.

Focal Concerns and Police Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 152483802199128
Author(s):  
David S. Lapsey ◽  
Bradley A. Campbell ◽  
Bryant T. Plumlee
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Campbell Collaboration ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Police Decision Making ◽  
The Impact

Sexual assault and case attrition at the arrest stage are serious problems in the United States. Focal concerns have increasingly been used to explain police decision making in sexual assault cases. Because of the popularity of the focal concerns perspective and potential to inform evidence-based training, a systematic review and meta-analysis are needed to condense the literature. In this study, we assess the overall strength of the relationship between focal concerns variables and police decisions to arrest in cases of sexual assault. Our assessment of the effects of focal concerns variables on arrest decision making in sexual assault cases followed the systematic review protocols provided by the Campbell Collaboration of Systematic Reviews. Specifically, we used the Campbell Collaboration recommendations to search empirical literature and used meta-analysis to evaluate the size, direction, and strength of the impact of focal concerns variables on arrest decisions. Our search strategy detected 14 eligible studies and 79 effect sizes. The meta-analysis found several robust and statistically significant correlates of arrest. In fact, each focal concerns concept produced at least one robust arrest correlate. Overall, focal concerns offers a strong approach for explaining police decisions in sexual assault cases. Although practical concerns and resource constraints produced the strongest arrest correlates, results show the importance of additional case characteristics in officers’ decision to arrest.

Service-Women’s Responses to Sexual Harassment: The Importance of Identity Work and Masculinity in a Gendered Organization

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (12-13) ◽  
pp. 1656-1680
Author(s):  
Stephanie Bonnes
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Military ◽  
Responses To Sexual Harassment ◽  
Depth Interviews

Using data from in-depth interviews with 38 U.S. service-women, this article explores women’s responses to sexual harassment in the military workplace. I argue that in an extremely gendered and masculine institution, sexual harassment threatens service-women’s identities as military insiders, presenting an identity dilemma for them. To resolve this dilemma, women prioritize their masculinity and downplay and excuse harassment. In contrast, service-women who have experienced sexual assault or combat confront sexual harassment. I argue that this is possible because for these two groups of women, sexual harassment does not present an identity dilemma. I show how masculinity is used to downplay and normalize harassment as well as to resist it.

“A Rape Is a Rape, Regardless of What the Victim Was Doing at the Time”: Detective Views on How “Problematic” Victims Affect Sexual Assault Case Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-44
Author(s):  
Eryn Nicole O’Neal ◽  
Brittany E. Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Sex Crimes ◽  
Case Processing ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Sexual Assault Case ◽  
Officer Attitudes ◽  
Depth Interviews

Research finds that “problematic” victim behaviors—for example, alcohol consumption—influence sexual assault case outcomes. Questions remain, however, regarding officer perceptions of what constitutes a problematic victim and how these victims complicate case processing. Indeed, most case processing research has relied on quantitative methods and inquiry into officer attitudes has primarily relied on the use of vignettes. Using data from in-depth interviews with 52 Los Angeles Police Department sex crimes detectives, we examine attitudes toward problematic victims. Overall, we aim to determine whether rape culture beliefs and efforts to operate in a “downstream orientation” influence detective views regarding victims who have been deemed problematic.

Effects of mothers' education on parenting: an investigation across three generations

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Duckworth ◽  
Ricardo Sabates
Keyword(s):  
Maternal Education ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Cognitive Stimulation ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
National Child Development Study ◽  
Confounding Bias ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

The paper investigates the relationship between mother's education and her parenting using data from the child supplement of the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS). By considering data across generations, our dataset allows us to estimate the size of the bias in the relationship between education and parenting from failing to account for background characteristics, early cognitive development and mother's own parenting experiences. The subjects were 1,182 longitudinally sampled mothers of 1,879 children aged between 3 and 18 years old and divided approximately equally across gender (51% sons, 49% daughters). Controlling for a wide range of family background variables and mother's own achievement prior to 16, results indicate a confounding bias of 73% for cognitive stimulation and 89% for emotional support. This confounding bias is larger for daughters than for sons. Even after the inclusion of a large set of controls, a small effect of maternal education on parenting, assessed in terms of the provision of a cognitively stimulating environment, remains statistically significant but only for sons. Although educational effects estimated here suffer from downwards bias owing to under-representation of older mothers within the data, some unobserved factors could remain as a source of bias.

Children of the Post-Communist Transition: Age at the Time of the Parents' Job Loss and Dropping Out of Secondary School

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabor Kertesi ◽  
Gabor Kezdi
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Job Loss ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Substantial Effect ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Dropping Out ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Employed Parents

Abstract Using data on children whose parents lost their jobs during the post-communist transition of Hungary, we address the causal effect of unexpected long-term unemployment of parents on their children's educational achievement. We estimate the effect of the children's age at the time of their parents' job loss on their probability of dropping out of secondary school (an event that follows the parents' job loss by many years). The treatment is an additional year reared in a family with regularly employed parents, which can be interpreted as additional human capital investment. We provide bounding estimates to the causal effect. The estimated bounds are tight, they show a substantial effect, and the effect is significantly stronger for preschool age children than for older ones.

Analyzing Variation in Prior Record Penalties Across Conviction Offenses

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 831-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Cassidy ◽  
Jason Rydberg
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Length Distribution ◽  
Criminal History ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Prior Record ◽  
Conditional Sentence ◽  
Focal Concerns Perspective ◽  
The Impact

The focal concerns perspective suggests that criminal history and the nature of the offense interact to influence judicial assessments of community threat, yet this question has not been subject to systematic empirical examination. Drawing on 4 years of data (2007-2010) from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing ( N = 75,676), we utilize linear quantile mixed models (LQMM) to examine the impact of prior record on the conditional distribution of sentence lengths across violent, property, drug, and sex offenders, controlling for the effects of important individual and judicial district-level covariates. The results indicate that prior record penalties differ both between and within conviction offense types across the conditional sentence length distribution. Substantive, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed.

One-Day Wave Forecasts Based on Artificial Neural Networks

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 1593-1603 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. N. Londhe ◽  
Vijay Panchang
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Artificial Neural Networks ◽  
Wave Model ◽  
Operational Forecasting ◽  
Artificial Neural ◽  
Wave Models ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Modeling Strategy ◽  
High Level ◽  
Real Time Simulations

Abstract Sophisticated wave models like the Wave Model (WAM) and Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN)/WAVEWATCH are used nowadays along with atmospheric models to produce forecasts of ocean wave conditions. These models are generally run operationally on large ocean-scale domains. In many coastal areas, on the other hand, operational forecasting is not performed for a variety of reasons, yet the need for wave forecasts remains. To address such cases, the production of forecasts through the use of artificial neural networks and buoy measurements is explored. A modeling strategy that predicts wave heights up to 24 h on the basis of judiciously selected measurements over the previous 7 days was examined. A detailed investigation of this strategy using data from six National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoys with diverse geographical and statistical properties demonstrates that 6-h forecasts can be obtained with a high level of fidelity, and forecasts up to 12 h showed a correlation of 67% or better relative to a full year of data. One limitation observed was the inability of the artificial neural network model to correctly predict the magnitude of the highest waves; although the occurrence of high waves was predicted, the peaks were underestimated. The inclusion of several years of data and the judicious selection of the training set, especially the inclusion of extreme events, were shown to be crucial for the model to recognize interannual variability and provide more reliable forecasts. Real-time simulations performed for April 2005 demonstrate the efficiency of this technology for operational forecasting.

Effects of Intrafamilial Sexual Assault on Eating Behaviors

1996 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 531-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy D. Bostwick Baldo ◽  
Scott D. Wallace ◽  
M. Sean O'Halloran
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Eating Behaviors ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Disordered Eating Behaviors ◽  
Eating Problem ◽  
University Women ◽  
History Of ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Recent research has linked sexual assaults with disordered eating behaviors. Whether the relationship of the perpetrator, intrafamilial or extrafamilial, affects the development of disturbed eating is not known. Using data from 390 university women, we found that women with histories of intrafamilial assaults were more likely to suffer a serious eating problem (17 of 36 subjects, 47%) than women who had no history of sexual assault (30 of 142 subjects, 21%) and women who only reported extrafamilial assaults (76 of 212 subjects, 36%).

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