Violence against women
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Violence against women · Feb 2012
Comparative StudyProsecution of adult sexual assault cases: a longitudinal analysis of the impact of a sexual assault nurse examiner program.
Most sexual assaults are never reported to law enforcement, and even among reported cases, most will never be successfully prosecuted. This reality has been a long-standing source of frustration for survivors, victim advocates, as well as members of the criminal justice system. To address this problem, communities throughout the United States have implemented multidisciplinary response interventions to improve post-assault care for victims and increase reporting and prosecution rates. ⋯ Results from longitudinal multilevel ordinal regression modeling revealed that case progression through the criminal justice system significantly increased pre- to post-SANE: more cases reached the "final" stages of prosecution (i.e., conviction at trial and/or guilty plea bargains) post-SANE. These findings are robust after accounting for changes in operation at the focal county prosecutors' office and seasonal variation in rape reporting. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.