Rape Reform and Criminal Justice Processing

One goal of criminal law reform regarding rape has been to enhance convictions. Data from California, in which several such reforms have been introduced, indicate that between 1975 and 1982: (1) police clearance rates for rape have remained relatively unchanged; (2) the rate of court filings for rape increased slightly; (3) the probability of a conviction once a case reached court was relatively unchanged; but that (4) there was a strong upward trend for cases of rape (and other serious felonies) to lead to an institutional sentence. Questions are raised about whether these “deep-end” effects meet the intent of rape law reform.