Three groups of suspects in police reported rape cases: First-time suspects, recidivists and unidentified suspects. A comparative study (original) (raw)
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Factors associated with trace evidence analyses and DNA findings among police reported cases of rape
Forensic science international, 2018
The aim of this study was to examine the association between victim, suspect and assault characteristics and (1) forensic analysis of trace evidence, (2) detection of spermatozoa and (3) DNA match in police-reported cases of rape/attempted rape. In addition, we explored whether DNA findings were associated with legal outcome. We conducted a retrospective, descriptive study based on police-reported rapes and attempted rapes of women ≥16 years of age in Sør-Trøndelag Police District throughout 1997-2010. Police data were merged with information from the Sexual Assault Centre (SAC) at St. Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway. We used binary and multivariable logistic regression for the comparisons. We identified 324 victims (mean age 24 years). The police requested analysis in 135 (45%) of the 299 collected victim samples. The police decision to analyze was after adjustment associated with the victim being employed or under education, and a public venue, but not with interval ...
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The objective of this study was to evaluate the main characteristics of adult male offenders convicted of rape or aggravated rape against adult females. We reviewed all convictions (n ¼ 21) based on court documents from the District Court, the Court of Appeal and information from the Swedish Tax Agency in Malm€ o, Sweden, between 2013 and 2018. The findings indicated that the most common offender characteristics were a single status, mean age of 33 years and foreign background. The rapes primarily occurred within a private setting while the victims (who were often younger and knew the offender) were unconscious. Although assumptions based on these results should be made with caution, our findings provide a clear image of the typical circumstances under which these rapes occurred. This study should be viewed as a first attempt to create a database of characteristics of convicted rapists. As more data are added, more sophisticated analyses can be performed and stronger generalizations may be made. Information of this kind may also be important for further research, classification of rapists in offender profiling, and case linking.
Understanding sexual violence and factors related to police outcomes
Frontiers in Psychology, 2022
In the year ending March 2020, an estimated 773,000 people in England and Wales were sexually assaulted. These types of crimes have lasting effects on victims' mental health, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. There is a large body of literature which identifies several factors associated with the likelihood of the victim reporting a sexual assault to the police, and these differences may be due to rape myth stereotypes which perpetuate the belief that rape is only "real" under certain conditions. Less is known, however, about the effect these rape myths and stereotypes have on the investigation process itself and the subsequent police outcomes assigned to sex offences. This study aimed to address this gap, providing a profile of all RASSO (rape and serious sexual offences) committed over a 3year period in one English police force, the police outcomes of these offences, and whether any offences, suspect, or victim variables were associated with different outcomes, in particular the decision to charge or cases where victims decline to prosecute. In line with previous research, the majority of victims were female while the majority of suspects were male, and the most frequent victim-suspect relationship was acquaintance, followed by partner/ex-partner. Charge outcomes were more likely in SSOs and less in rape offences, more likely with stranger offences and less likely than offences committed by partners/ex-partners and relatives, and some nonwhite suspects were more likely to be charged than suspects of other ethnicities, including white suspects. Victim attrition was more likely in cases where the suspect was a partner or ex-partner and least likely where the suspect was a stranger, more likely in SSOs than in rape cases, and more likely when the victim ethnicity was "other". Law enforcement should be aware of the potential biases, both relating to rape myths and stereotypes and to the biased treatment of victims and suspects based on demographic characteristics, and work to eliminate these to ensure a fairer and more effective RASSO investigative process.
Crime scene actions and offender characteristics in a sample of Finnish stranger rapes
Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 2004
The crime scene actions employed by offenders in stranger rapes were analysed in relation to offender characteristics. Data were drawn from an official police database and consisted of stranger rapes occurring in Finland between 1992 and 2001 (n = 100). The structure of dichotomous variables derived through a content analysis of crime scene actions and offender characteristics were analysed with non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS). The first analysis revealed three separate action themes, with thematic emphases on Hostility, Involvement or Theft. The MDS-solution for offender characteristics suggested four themes: Conventional; Psychiatric/Elderly; Criminal/Violent; and Criminal/Property. Each case was assigned to one of the themes or as a hybrid in order to analyse the associations between action themes and characteristics. The only significant association was found between the action theme, Theft and characteristics theme Criminal/Property. The results are discussed in relation to previous research. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
BMC public health, 2014
Underage drinking is widespread, but studies on alcohol-related sexual victimization among teenage girls are almost non-existent. Research on individual correlates and risk factors of sexual victimization more generally is also meager. This study focuses on sexual assault while incapacitated due to drunkenness among 15-18 year-old girls and examines how age, drinking behavior, impulsivity and involvement in norm-violating activities are associated with such victimization experiences. Data stemmed from a school survey (response rate: 85%) in 16 Norwegian municipalities. Almost all analyses were restricted to girls who had been intoxicated in the past year (n = 2701). In addition to bivariate associations, adjusted odds ratios and relative risks of incapacitated sexual assault (ISA) were estimated. Further, population-attributable fractions were calculated to explore how the prevalence of ISA victimization was likely to be affected if effective preventive measures were targeted solely...
Juvenile and adult problems in 20 forensic psychiatric rapists in Sweden
Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 2003
The purpose of this study was to assess the pattern of background variables of 20 convicted rapists. The sample comprised two distinct forensic psychiatric subgroups undergoing different treatments. Data were extracted from forensic psychiatric files. The study variables were juvenile and adult problems of the offenders, related by previous research to the occurrence of rape. Records of juvenile problems and juvenile psychological disturbances tended to co-occur with adult problems of aggressiveness, alcoholism and extensive criminality. The correlation analysis further supports the notion that psychosocial disturbances have a persistent character: in our sample, different problems in young age are linked to each other as well as to adulthood problems. The results are discussed in the light of empirical research and the need for early and proper individual treatment programmes. • Aggressiveness, Forensic psychiatric fiies. Rape.
Victimology of alleged rape cases: A three year institution based cross- sectional study
Aim of study: The demographics and characteristics of sexual assault are changing. Hence, the aim of the study is to: a. To describe victim, assault characteristics for women alleging rape according to the type of penal sections egistered by the police. b. To record the time between the last sexual assault and the examination, and to find out the reasons of delayed reporting of rape cases. c. To provide descriptive data on the medico-legal findings. d. And, to do a comparative review of the existing literatures. Material and method: This study is based on 244 numbers of examined rape victims reported to the Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology during the period from January 2010 up to December 2013. Victims were referred from investigating police authorities for evidentiary examination. Study included all cases registered under Section 376 Indian penal code (punishment for rape) by the police, with or without sections of other offences e.g. gang rape, rape followed by murder, abduction and rape, sexual intercourse made deceivingly or by an impostor; and rest all types of medico-legal cases were excluded. The prospective data regarding victim's socio-demographic variables, detailed history of the alleged act, her relationship with the alleged accused person, date, time, place of occurrence of the crime, frequency of occurrence, reasons for delayed reporting, information regarding bathing, changing of clothing after the act, and use of any barrier methods by assailants were collected from the rape victims, accompying family attendents, from the police, physical examination findings, laboratory investigation findings, and from any other available documents. Results: Most commonly alleged charge was 'abduction and rape' (46%), and least reported ones were gang rape, rape and murder (1%), and only 'rape' alleged in 8% cases. About 89% of the alleging women were 11-30 years old, with a median of 23.7 years, and mean 25 years; 57% were unmarried, 40% were educated up to the junior college level, and 55% were above the poverty line. A majority of cases (75%) were from rural and semi-urban areas. In 97% cases, the alleging woman knew the alleged accused person. Most commonly, boyfriends, friends, or the acquaintances were the culprits (70%). The fatal forms of sexual assault like gang rape, rape and murder usually done by the unknown assailants. The crime in 82% cases had occurred in Indoors. Out of which 60% cases had allegedly occurred at either victim's home, or the alleged accused person's home or office. Majority (47%) of cases reported during winter season, and the least (16%) in rainy season. A majority (60%) of the cases reported after 7 days of the alleged incident. The latency of reporting of cases varied from 24 hours to 2.5 months with a median of 27 days. Physical force for sexual intercourse was used in 46% of cases, but physical injuries found in 2-3% of cases only (extra-genital injuries in 2% and genital injuries in 3% of cases). The risk factor for the detection of genital injury is the presence of extra-genital injury [Odds Ratio (OR) 1.2, 95% Confidence Interval (CI)]; and, the risk factors for the presence of genital injuries in the absence of extra-genital injuries are, age below 12 years (OR 3.3, 95% CI) and beyond 38 years (OR 1.2, 95% CI). In 2%, cases seminal stain and foreign pubic hairs retrieved from the body of the victim. The victim women had witnessed use of condom by the alleged offender in 18% of cases. Conclusion: Though all age groups are prone for rape, unmarried women in their first three decades are more vulnerable. A known victim-offender relationship usually associated with the less physical or genital injuries, and less fatality. While evaluating rape cases possibility of false allegations of rape should not be ignored. Presence of physical or genital injuries is neither predictive nor essential for conviction. Medical examiners need to be circumspect while recording non-medical variables for a successful prosecution.
Rape in the Nordic Countries, 2019
How to measure rape precisely has been an important topic in feminist research on violence against women since the 1980s. The norm in contemporary studies is to use behaviourally specific questions identifying specific acts that are judicially considered rape to measure the phenomenon, but some studies also use broad single-item questions. In the present study, a survey experiment was conducted among adolescents from Oslo, the capital of Norway, to investigate discrepancies in the prevalence of rape using three different measures and to determine whether the method of measurement differentially affected the prevalence rates according to a range of individual background characteristics. The broad single-item question returned the lowest prevalence of rape, with rates of 5% among girls and 1% among boys. Excluding an item on involuntary incapacitated sex, the prevalence rates when behaviourally specific questions were asked were 9% among girls and 2% among boys; the rates were 14% and 3% (respectively) when this item was included. No significant interactions were identified in logistic regression analyses between the rape instruments and the different background characteristics, which indicates that the relative difference in prevalence rates between groups did not differ according to the chosen method when measuring rape. We use the results from the study to discuss what would be a ‘good enough’ measure of rape among adolescents.