Reporting sexual assault

The purpose of this study was to assess reported cases of sexual assault to adult women in Alameda County. Areas of assessment included determining how elapsed reporting time, prior victim-perpetrator relationships, and medical examinations affected the decision to prosecute the cases and the conviction rate. A total of 109 docket numbers were provided by Alameda County, and 108 of the files were located at the corresponding court houses. The 56 files that represented 59 victim-perpetrator matches provided the data for this study. Cross tabulations and ANOVA's were performed on the independent variables elapsed reporting time, prior victim-perpetrator relationships, and medical examinations; and the dependent variables of decision to prosecute and conviction rate. Overall, there were no significant interactions among the variables. The one significant finding was a main effect for prior relationships and the decision to prosecute. Over half of the matches were solved by plea bargaining the cases (50.8%). Over one-quarter of the alleged perpetrators had prior convictions (32.2%), 15.3% had prior sexual assault convictions, and 10.2% were on probation at the time of arrest.