role of the victim-assailant relationship in sexual assault case attrition

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20292840

Estimates show that one in six women in their lifetime will be the victim of a sexual assault. Of those victims, the majority are assaulted by someone known to them and do not report the assault to police. Victims who do report the assault are unlikely to see their case move forward in the justice system. The current study examines the correlates between sexual assault case attrition and the role of the victim-assailant relationship in sexual assault case processing. A dearth of literature dedicates extensive time exploring whether the victim-assailant relationship differentially influences case outcomes. Such studies fail to examine how the victim-assailant relationship influences extralegal and legally relevant factors, particularly as those factors relate to criminal justice outcomes. This dissertation contributes to the literature by assessing whether different victim-assailant relationship groups impact certain case characteristics and how that impact influences the trajectory of a sexual assault case.