To Report or Not to Report? A Focal Concerns Analysis of Victim Reporting Decisions Following Victimization

Sexual assault (SA) decision-making literature primarily focuses on criminal-legal actors and often overlooks victim decision making. This relative dearth in research is problematic, as victims are principal gatekeepers of the criminal-legal process who influence whether perpetrators are arrested and prosecuted. Subsequent victim support is also contingent on the reporting decision. Overall, this body of research would benefit from a better understanding of how victims activate and participate with the criminal-legal system and the potential impact of these decisions on criminal-legal processes. Moreover, victim decision making is often situated in a theoretical analyses. Victim decision making is complex and should be studied within a criminological decision-making framework. Therefore, the current study relies on National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data and applies a focal concerns perspective (FCP), informed by rape culture concepts, to examine why victims of sexual violence may or may not choose to report to legal authorities. The current study offers initial support for the application of FCP to victim reporting decisions. We found that victims consider each of the focal concerns (FC). Victims were more likely to report when offenders threatened them with harm (i.e., suspect blameworthiness), when the offense occurred in a private location (i.e., protection of the community), and when they sought help from victim support agencies or medical treatment (i.e., practical considerations). Additionally, we found that Black victims were more likely to report than other racial-ethnic groups (i.e., perceptual shorthand). These findings highlight a nexus between reporting to police and help-seeking via support agencies. Importantly, the results emphasize the importance for police to implement cultural competence and antiracist training to better support Black victims.

County-Level Context and Sentence Lengths for Black, Latinx, and White Individuals Sentenced to Prison: A Multi-Level Assessment

This article examines the relationship between race, ethnicity, county-level contextual variables, and sentence lengths for Black, Latinx, and White individuals sentenced to prison. Hierarchical linear modeling is used to examine the focal concerns perspective, the racial/ethnic threat thesis, socioeconomic inequality across racial/ethnic groups, political climate, and individual-level factors and sentence lengths. Data come from the National Corrections Reporting Program and other sources to examine sentences for over 500,000 individuals admitted to U.S. prisons between 2015 and 2017, from 751 counties. Results indicate that Black and Latinx individuals receive longer sentences than their White counterparts, even after controlling for relevant variables. The racial/ethnic threat thesis is not supported. Black individuals are sentenced longer than their White counterparts in counties with larger shares of Republican voters. Findings indicate that race and ethnicity continue to be salient predictors of punishment, with Black and Latinx individuals facing harsher outcomes than their White counterparts.

A Sign of the Crimes: Examining Officers’ Identification of, and Arrest for, Stalking in Domestic Violence Complaints

Despite stalking as a risk factor for intimate partner homicide, few studies have explored officer decision making in domestic violence (DV) complaints that involve stalking. This study employs the focal concerns perspective to identify the legal and extra-legal factors associated with officers' identification of, and arrest for, stalking in DV complaints. Using a statewide sample of 230 DV complaints from Rhode Island, findings indicated that nearly one in four suspects were arrested for stalking in DV complaints (25.2%). Stalking acknowledgment was associated with the location of the offense, prior police involvement, and the total number of offenses committed. Officers were more likely to arrest suspects for stalking in DV complaints if the victim was willing to cooperate. Support for the focal concerns perspective varied according to the type of decision. Avenues for future research, as well as theoretical and practical implications, are discussed.

A Focal Concerns Perspective on Prosecutorial Decision Making in Cases of Intimate Partner Stalking

Despite millions of stalking victims contacting the police each year, suspects are rarely arrested or prosecuted. While prosecutors are ultimately the gatekeepers to holding defendants accountable, few studies have examined the factors influencing charging decisions in stalking cases. Using the focal concerns perspective, this study analyzed 5 years of domestic violence and stalking case outcomes in Rhode Island. Findings indicated that prosecutors were more likely to prosecute stalking cases when defendants evoked fear in the victim and pursued victims in public. The decision to prosecute stalking versus other domestic violence–related charges was motivated by the location of the offense and the defendant’s history of physical abuse toward the victim. Neither extralegal factors nor characteristics of blameworthiness or suspect culpability influenced prosecutorial decision making. Findings underscore the legal complexities of stalking and suggest the need for additional insight on prosecutorial perspectives and strategies to articulate the fear standard in stalking cases.

Examining the “Gang Penalty” in the Juvenile Justice System: A Focal Concerns Perspective

There are hundreds of thousands of juvenile gang members in the United States who are at heightened risk of criminal offending, violent victimization, and incarceration. Importantly, however, incarceration in itself is a lifelong risk factor for negative social outcomes. That said, little is known about the effects of gang membership on the sentencing outcomes of juvenile offenders. The primary research question of the current study is: How does self-reported gang membership influence the likelihood of incarceration relative to similarly situated non-gang-involved juvenile defendants? To address this question, the current study uses data obtained from the Pathways to Desistance study. In a sample of 1,067 serious adolescent offenders drawn from Wave I, results show that gang affiliation is a significant predictor of incarceration. This finding was consistent across the two study sites (Phoenix, AZ, and Philadelphia, PA), ultimately providing support for a “gang penalty” in juvenile sentencing outcomes. The implications for future research, juvenile justice policy, and youth development are discussed.

Funneled Through or Filtered Out: An Examination of Police and Prosecutorial Decision-Making in Adult Sexual Assault Cases

To improve criminal justice responses to sexual assault, it is vital to understand the factors that influence decisions made by police and prosecutors and how these decisions overlap. Although decisions made at the prosecutorial stage are largely reliant on the actions of the police, the prosecutors’ charging decisions often differ from how the police classify incidents. Guided by the focal concerns perspective, this study examined 231 cases of adult sexual assault incidents reported to the police to identify which factors were predictive of congruent charging decisions and arrest. The results supported the focal concerns perspective and revealed that legal and extralegal factors were influential at both of these points. Legally relevant factors that focused on the collection of evidence were paramount in decisions at both stages; however, extralegal variables such as timely reporting and whether the victim physically resisted were also significantly related to decisions at each stage. Implications arising from the results are discussed.

Examining the Interaction of Race and Probationer Noncompliance on Sanctioning Decisions

Much of the prior literature on racial disparity has focused on sentencing decisions, with recent studies examining possible interactions between defendant race and legally relevant factors. Many defendants serve their sentences within the community, yet less is known about decision-making when probationers are noncompliant with the conditions of their sentence. Rooted in the focal concerns perspective and congruence to stereotypes framework, this study examines whether noncompliance issues are moderated by probationer race in predicting the likelihood of a jail sanction. A sample of 302 review hearings from domestic violence courts was included for analysis. Results demonstrate that several noncompliance issues influenced sanctioning, independent of race; no significant interactions were found. Implications for probation decision-making are discussed.

An Examination of the Impacts of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity on the Judicial Processing of Offenders in Family Violence Cases

Using the focal concerns perspective, the present study examined possible gender, race, and ethnic disparities on judges’ pretrial release, incarceration, and sentence length decisions in family violence cases. The results indicate that males were more likely to receive an order of bail (as opposed to release on own recognizance), received higher bail amounts, were less likely to make bail, were more likely to receive prison opposed to jail, and were incarcerated for significantly longer periods of time than women. Hispanic defendants were more likely than White defendants to receive higher bail amounts and were more likely to be detained until sentencing. Black defendants, on the other hand, were more likely to receive prison as opposed to jail than White offenders.

Analyzing Variation in Prior Record Penalties Across Conviction Offenses

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.

The Interrelationships of Politicization of School Shootings, Focal Concerns, and Racial Disproportionality in School Discipline Policies

School shootings have redefined perceptions and definitions of school violence, elevating incidences of misbehaviors and rule infractions to consistent violent threats. School shootings are rare but that important fact is lost in the debate and political rhetoric. What is also atypical are school shootings involving minority students and even more uncommon school shootings at minority schools. However, minority students have disproportionately experienced the latent effects of these policies. Few studies have offered systematic theoretical explanations for racial disciplinary disproportionality. This chapter outlines a theoretical argument using the “focal concerns” perspective to link the latent impact of the politicization of school shootings to continued racial disproportionality in school discipline. The discussion and analysis show the role of the politicization of school shootings has played in redefining and expanding the definition of school violence or school misbehaviors. Policy suggestions based in socio-political and psychological frameworks are also outlined.