Download or read book The Importance of Victim Credibility in Prosecuting Adult Sexual Assault Cases written by Australian Institute of Criminology and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to Crown Prosecutors interviewed for a recent Australian Institute of Criminology study, a number of factors determine whether to proceed with or discontinue an adult sexual assault case. The most important of these is credibility, which encompasses various personal characteristics, including whether the victim is genuine and trustworthy, for example not embellishing facts such as how much she or he had been drinking. Perceptions of credibility are also influenced by demeanour, such as a victim being calm and not argumentative towards the defence. Memory and communication skills also play an important role, as the victim is required to recall and relate what happened. However, the study found that the most important factor in Crown Prosecutors 'assessments of victim credibility was consistency in the victim's statements at various times, between statements given by the victim and witnesses, and in the victim's post-assault behaviour. This paper includes a table which summarises practical, victim-related factors that may influence prosecutors' decisions.
Download or read book Victim Credibility in Adult Sexual Assault Cases written by Denise Lievore and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The exercise of prosecutorial discretion is one of the most important but least understood aspects of the administration of criminal justice. This paper provides an insight into the case by case considerations that inform prosecutorial decisions in adult sexual assault cases, through a thematic analysis of interviews with 24 Crown prosecutors in five Australian jurisdictions. The interviews highlight the factors that prosecutors take into account when assessing victim credibility and deciding whether to prosecute. The paper also discusses prosecutors' views on jurors' attitudes to and defence lawyers' use of moral and gender stereotypes, and the problem of victim intoxication or substance use.
Download or read book Prosecutorial Decisions in Adult Sexual Assault Cases written by Denise Lievore and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prosecution agencies are often criticised for their performance in prosecuting sexual assault. A lack of external transparency means there is little knowledge about the specific criteria used in decisions to proceed with or discontinue prosecutions. Understanding the factors that impact on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion therefore constitutes an important step towards improving criminal justice outcomes in sexual assault prosecutions. This paper analyses prosecutorial decisions to proceed with or discontinue prosecution in adult sexual assault cases, based on a survey of 141 Director of Public Prosecutions case files in five Australian jurisdictions. The results indicate that case decisions are primarily based on evidentiary considerations related to the ability to secure a conviction, but they also raise questions about the handling of cases involving prior relationships.
Download or read book It s a Gut Feeling written by Julianna Hale and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #MeToo Movement has sparked debate across the world as to how prevalent sexual assault is and what can be done to help survivors. Although sexual assaults are the least likely crime to be reported to police, it is important to examine the criminal justice system's treatment of these cases. The focus of this thesis is on the prosecution of sexual assault cases. Specifically, the goal is to uncover the factors that impact prosecutorial decision-making in sexual assault cases across three different timepoints. This study examines qualitative interviews conducted in 2010 with 30 Deputy District Attorneys from Los Angeles, California. Results reveal that prosecutors' largely rely on their "gut feelings" about whether a case will be successful based on a combination of factors, including: victim credibility, availability of evidence, and corroboration of the victim's story, just to name a few. The study concludes with an examination of these results, a discussion on the limitations of the study and a guide for future research, and what policy changes can come from these findings.
Download or read book Predators written by Anna Salter and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-07-03 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What motivates sexual abusers? Why are so few caught? Drawing on the stories of abusers, Anna C. Salter shows that sexual predators use sophisticated deception techniques and rely on misconceptions surrounding them to evade discovery. Arguing that even the most knowledgeable among us can be fooled, Salter dispels the myths about sexual predators and gives us the tools to protect our families and ourselves.
Download or read book Successful Prosecution of Intimate Violence written by Bridget H. Ryan and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-07 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offender-focused prosecution concentrates attention to the actions, decisions, choices, and motivations of the offender. Crimes of intimate violence tend to compel investigators, prosecutors, and defense attorneys to fixate on the victim’s behavior to prove or disprove a case. Prosecutors can become helpless when faced with uncooperative victims, challenging facts, or attacks on the victims’ credibility. However, when the prosecution can rely on evidence and offender-focused interviewing, investigation, and case construction, there is a greater chance of success. This book will offer investigators and prosecutors concrete information and techniques to construct and present offender-focused cases in crimes of intimate violence. First, we will challenge the reader’s biases and assumptions about intimate violence, providing information that will dispel pervasive myths and misinformation we maintain. We will explain the motivations and techniques that offenders use on their victims to ensure the victims’ silence, compliance, and resistance to prosecution. The second section will address specific steps that investigators and prosecutors can take for offender-focused prosecution, including interviewing practices, conducting evidence-based investigations, selecting and preparing a jury, and building an offender-focused prosecution through the case. The reader will be offered practical and attainable practices and skills. This book will be primarily intended for investigators or prosecutors. However, it will be accessible to paralegals, victim advocates, judges, and others involved in the criminal justice system to utilize.
Download or read book Policing and Prosecuting Sexual Assault written by Cassia Spohn and published by Lynne Rienner Pub. This book was released on 2014 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cassia Spohn and Katharine Tellis assess the criminal justice system¿s response to sexual assault, exploring the complex dynamics that shape the actions of police and prosecutors. The authors draw on unparalleled access to Los Angeles detectives, prosecutors, and case files to make sense of the factors that affect the outcomes of sexual assault claims. Following cases from victim report, to police investigation, to the decision to charge¿or not to charge¿they provide new insights into why shockingly few sexual assault claims lead to an eventual criminal conviction.
Download or read book The Evolving Role of the Public Prosecutor written by Victoria Colvin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-24 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern public prosecutor is a figure both powerful and enigmatic. Legal scholars and criminologists often identify “three essential components” of criminal justice systems: police, courts and corrections. Yet increasingly, the public prosecutor occupies a distinct role independent from any of these branches. Acting outside of the court, and therefore largely out of the public eye, the prosecutor’s control over whether and what charges proceed to court can limit judicial discretion on sentencing, open pathways to alternative measures and even deny entry into the criminal justice system entirely. In this sense the prosecutor serves as a true “gatekeeper” to the criminal process. This book addresses key aspects of the evolving role of domestic and international prosecutors in common law and civil law systems in the twenty-first century, and the challenges posed by this evolution. This collection of chapters from respected scholars takes an international, comparative approach and explores how these different legal systems have borrowed theorisations and articulations of the prosecutorial role from each other in adapting the office to changing conditions and expectations. The volume is structured around four main themes relating to the role of the modern prosecutor: the nature of the prosecutor’s office, the role of the prosecutor in investigations, prosecutorial discretion and how it is exercised, and politicisation and accountability of prosecutors. This book is essential for scholars and students in criminal justice, pre-law/legal studies, criminology, justice studies and political science, and is useful as a resource for those interested in legal change around the world.
Download or read book Rape Law Reform written by Cassia Spohn and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-27 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book evolved from our interest in rape as feminists and as sodal sdentists. As feminists, we were concemed about the treatment of rape victims and the attrition in rape cases under traditional rape law, and we welcomed legal reforms designed to improve the situation. As sodal sdentists, we wondered about the efficacy of legal changes aimed at an inherently resistant court system. We also were curious about the lack of studies examining the impact of these changes; we were particularly surprised to find that no one had attempted to ana lyze the impact of the reforms in more than one jurisdiction. Con vinced that untangling the effects of the reforms from the effects of contextual factors required a multijurisdictional study, we deeided to undertake the project. We quickly discovered that evaluating rape law reform in several jurisdictions would be no easy task. We had deeided that such an evaluation would require monthly data on the outcome of rape cases before and after the reforms were implemented, as weIl as qualitative data on the attitudes of criminal justice officials toward the reforms. Because states do not generate monthly data on case outcomes, we would have to collect the data ourse1ves from court records main tained by individual jurisdictions. To obtain an adequate number of cases for the time-series analysis, we would have to select our sites from large urban jurisdictions scattered throughout the United States.
Download or read book Psychology and Criminal Justice written by János Boros and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-06-24 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Psychology Law and Criminal Justice written by Graham Davies and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-06-15 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sexual Assault and the Justice Gap A Question of Attitude written by Jennifer Temkin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is set against the background of the 'justice gap' in sexual assault cases - the dramatic gap between the number of offences recorded by the police and the number of convictions. It seeks to examine the attitudinal problems which bedevil this area of law and possible strategies for addressing them. Written by a professor of law and a professor of psychology, it reviews evidence from socio-legal and social cognition research and presents new data drawn both from interviews with judges and barristers and from studies with prospective lawyers and members of the public. In the final part, it considers different ways in which rape trials could be improved and suggests steps that could be taken to change public attitudes about sexual assault.
Download or read book The Legal Prosecution of Adult Rape Cases Processed by a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program written by Debra Ann Patterson and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Routledge International Handbook of Legal and Investigative Psychology written by Ray Bull and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-11 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge International Handbook of Legal and Investigative Psychology explores contemporary topics in psychological science, applying them to investigative and legal procedures. Written by recognized scholars from around the globe, this book brings together current research, emerging trends, and cutting-edge debates in a single comprehensive and authoritative volume. Drawing from both research and practice, this handbook highlights many important issues such as: how to investigate and prosecute rape; the value of emotional affect in homicide investigations; and factors affecting jurors’ and suspects’ decision making. By considering current research, the authors inform both legal and investigative professionals of findings that are of direct relevance to them, and the steps that can be taken to improve efficiency. This collection will inform investigative and legal professionals, advanced psychology students, academics, researchers, and policy makers. It will also be of great interest to researchers from other disciplines, including criminology, policing, and law.
Download or read book Juror Attitudes and Biases in Sexual Assault Cases written by Natalie Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sexual assault has among the highest rates of acquittal and lowest rates of proven guilt compared with other offences. Given that more than 70 percent of sexual assault incidents are not reported to police and only about one in 10 reported incidents results in a guilty finding, increasing conviction rates for sexual assault is a key issue for the criminal justice system. This paper presents findings from two recent studies conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology. These show that juror judgements in rape trials are influenced more by the attitudes, beliefs and biases about rape which jurors bring with them into the courtroom than by the objective facts presented, and that stereotypical beliefs about rape and victims of it still exist within the community. As jurors are members of the community and are randomly drawn in order to be representative of it, the two studies together indicate that successful prosecutions of sexual assault will remain low until we acknowledge that jurors interpret what they see in light of their own beliefs, experience and expectations. We need to know what these belief structures are and how they directly impact upon judgements in rape trials, if conviction rates are to improve.
Download or read book Sexual Assault in Canada written by Elizabeth A. Sheehy and published by University of Ottawa Press. This book was released on 2012-09-29 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sexual Assault in Canada is the first English-language book in almost two decades to assess the state of sexual assault law and legal practice in Canada. Gathering together feminist scholars, lawyers, activists and policy-makers, it presents a picture of the difficult issues that Canadian women face when reporting and prosecuting sexual violence. The volume addresses many themes including the systematic undermining of women who have been sexually assaulted, the experiences of marginalized women, and the role of women’s activism. It explores sexual assault in various contexts, including professional sports, the doctor–patient relationship, and residential schools. And it highlights the influence of certain players in the reporting and litigation of sexual violence, including health care providers, social workers, police, lawyers and judges. Sexual Assault in Canada provides both a multi-faceted assessment of the progress of feminist reforms to Canadian sexual assault law and practice, and articulates a myriad of new ideas, proposed changes to law, and inspired activist strategies. This book was created to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Jane Doe’s remarkable legal victory against the Toronto police for sex discrimination in the policing of rape and for negligence in failing to warn her of a serial rapist. The case made legal history and motivated a new generation of feminist activists. This book honours her pioneering work by reflecting on how law, legal practice and activism have evolved over the past decade and where feminist research and reform should lead in the years to come.
Download or read book The Second Rape written by Lee Madigan and published by Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 1991 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the blind and subtle ways our society fosters greater feelings of violation and trauma in women who report their rape.
