Rape investigation and attrition in acquaintance, domestic violence and historical rape cases

Abstract

This paper looks at the progression of rape cases through the criminal justice system, from report to court, exploring the different attrition trajectories for cases that can be characterized as involving acquaintance, intimate domestic violence, and historical child sexual abuse contexts. Using police data from three police forces in England covering 87 cases, interviews relating to 15 victim/survivors and interviews with criminal justice professional, the paper explores investigative processes and victim engagement across rape cases and their different trajectories through the criminal justice system. The legal and extra-legal factors that have been identified in the previous literature as increasing attrition, such as relationship between victim and offender, vulnerability of victim, and evidential issues, were all seen to play some part in the attrition and trajectories of the cases discussed here, but were relevant to different degrees depending on whether the cases involved acquaintance, intimate domestic violence, or historical child sexual abuse. If we are to more effectively deal with the “justice gap” that exists in rape cases, an important aspect is to understand the differences between these groups of cases and the particular circumstance and needs of the victims in these different contexts.