Examining victim self-protection on police and prosecutorial decision-making for sexual assault case advancement

Historically, demonstrating a victim's “resistance” to sexual assault was a legal requirement to achieve convictions. While these legal requirements have been repealed, victim self-protective behaviors (VSPB), broadly defined as various responses to an assault, may still impact criminal justice decision-making through perceptual shorthand embedded in “real rape” and “ideal victim” misconceptions. Yet, few studies have examined how victim self-protective behaviors can shape sexual assault case outcomes. Using 368 sexual assault cases from a Midwestern jurisdiction, we examined the relationship between three distinct operationalizations of victim self-protective behaviors and two outcomes: police case referral and prosecutorial charging. Findings revealed that while all behaviors increased case referral odds, charging odds were increased by forceful VSPB, but decreased by nonforceful VSPB. That said, the victim wanted an investigation was the strongest predictor of case referral odds and the strongest predictor of charging odds was the suspect confessed. Implications for theory and practice include how divergent patterns allude to fundamentally different lenses actors use to assess self-protection. While police may view them as corroborative evidence, prosecutors seem to favor behaviors most consistent with prevailing misconceptions.