Chelsie Lawter and Faculty Mentor: Julie Valentine, BYU College of Nursing

Introduction

Sexual assault (SA) is one of the most common crimes in the state, affecting one in three Utah women (Mitchell & Peterson, 2008). Despite this, shockingly low numbers of Utah SA victims see their cases progress to prosecution; for example, in Salt Lake County from 2003-2011, only 6% of SA cases were successfully prosecuted (Valentine, Shaw, Lark & Campbell, 2016). These numbers reflect an urgent need in Utah to identify barriers to prosecution and take steps to eliminate those barriers. Police officers, as first responders when victims seek to report an incidence of SA, have an important role in determining whether or not SA cases will be prosecuted. They have the power to decide whether or not SA claims are founded, meaning they decide whether or not they meet the standard to be considered a crime and proceed through the criminal justice system (Mennicke, Anderson, Oehme & Kennedy, 2014). Unfortunately, researchers have found that many police officers are skeptical of SA reports, believing that victims frequently lie about having been assaulted. Mennicke et al. (2014) found that more than half of police officers believe the rate of false rape reports is above 50%. However, the true rate is only 2-8% (Lonsway, Archambault & Lisake, 2009). It is believed that this misperception regarding false reports of rape is partly due to a lack of understanding about the effects that the trauma of SA has on the brain – something referred to as the “neurobiology of sexual assault” (Campbell, 2013). Because law enforcement has so much influence over whether or not SA cases will be prosecuted, the fact that many police officers doubt victim claims of SA is worrisome. It suggests that training police officers about SA and its impact on victims, particularly on victim reporting, could be valuable in facilitating higher prosecution rates for SA cases. In a pilot study in 2013, it was found that after officers in the West Valley City Police Department (WVC PD) received SA training on the neurobiology of sexual assault, the percentage of adult SA cases prosecuted increased from 6% to 24% (Kelly & Valentine, 2016). The purpose of the current study was to conduct a follow-up to the pilot study and find out whether WVC PD maintained improved levels of prosecution once the pilot study ended. It was also to determine whether continued training could further improve prosecution rates, police officer attitudes toward SA cases, and victim perceptions of the officers.

Methodology

This project replicated a pilot study conducted in 2013-2014 with WVC PD. To conduct the current study, police officers from the WVC PD underwent a mandatory training on the neurobiology of sexual assault and on trauma-informed interviewing techniques (ways to interview victims in a manner that is sensitive to the trauma they have experienced). The officers were invited to complete a survey prior to the beginning of the training to evaluate their perceptions of SA cases, and 172 police officers and detectives chose to participate. All officers are receiving four brief follow-up trainings throughout one year following the initial training, and those who chose to enroll in the study will complete a second survey one year after the initial training to evaluate for changes in perception. In addition, following the initial training, victim
enrollment began as SA cases occurred. As victims reported their cases to the WVC PD, they were invited to fill out an anonymous survey about their perceptions of the police officers who worked with them. Surveys were sent to Julie Valentine’s office from the police department and coded using SPSS. Victim enrollment is still occurring, as victims will be enrolled for a total of one year. Victim cases will also be tracked until they are adjudicated.

Results

Due to the fact that the study is not completed, most results are not available. The only currently available results are the findings from the police officer pre-assessment prior to receiving SA training. Officers were asked about their perception of how difficult SA cases and victims are to work with, how many rapes they believe are false reports, how confident they feel in their abilities to work on SA cases, and how well they feel they understand trauma-informed care and the neurobiology of SA. Results from this survey were compared with results from the pilot study in 2013-2014. Of note is the fact that 26.8% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that most reported rapes are false compared with 13% in the post-assessment in 2014. This is important because studies show that only a small percentage of reported rapes are false. The increase suggests the need for continual training, as the numbers of those who believe most rape reports are false increased after a period of several years without any training.
Other results will become available as the study comes to a conclusion. Results on the police officer post-training survey and on victim perceptions of the police officers they work with will be available once the one-year study period has ended. Results on victim case outcomes will become available more gradually as each case works its way through the criminal justice system.

Discussion and Conclusion

The goal of this study is to research police perceptions of SA victims and determine whether training police officers about SA can have an impact on how cases are handled, as measured by victim surveys and outcomes for each SA case. Various researchers, cited in the introduction, have established that police officers tend to be skeptical of SA cases and very few cases are successfully prosecuted; however, it is important to also learn about what factors can make a difference. That is what makes this research important. By tracking one police department over a significant period of time following training on SA, we can evaluate the usefulness of training, both to change police officer attitudes towards SA victims and cases and to increase the percentage of cases that are successfully prosecuted. Our research is especially valuable because it is a follow-up after the 2013 pilot study. This means we are able to track long-term trends in the police department by comparing the results of the pilot and current studies along with case outcomes between studies, when police officers were not receiving our sexual assault trainings. As a result, we will be able to learn more about whether or not repeated trainings over multiple years are effective in helping improve police officer perceptions of SA cases and prosecution rates.
In addition, we hope to expand this study to more police departments. Recently the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLC PD) agreed to begin participation in the study starting in 2018. I will continue to work on the WVC PD aspect of the study and help launch the study with SLC PD, until I graduate in April 2018.

References

Campbell, R. (2013). Understanding the neurobiology of sexual trauma. National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from http://nij.gov/multimedia/presenter/presenter-campbell/Pages/welcome.aspx.
Lonsway, K. A., Archambault, J., & Lisaki, D. (2009). False reports: Moving beyond the issue to successfully investigate and prosecute non-stranger sexual assault. The Voice, 3(1), 1-11.
Kelly, D. & Valentine, J. (2016). The science of neurobiology of sexual assault trauma and the Utah legal system. Submitted for publication.
Mitchell, C. & Peterson, B. (2008). Rape in Utah 2007: A survey of Utah women. Retrieved from http://nomoresecrets.utah.gov/Documents/RapeinUtah2007.pdf
Mennicke, A., Anderson, D., Oehme, K., & Kennedy, S. (2014). Law enforcement officers’ perception of rape and rape victims: A multimethod study. Violence and Victims, 29(5), 814-827. doi: 10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-13-00017
Valentine, J. L., Shaw, J., Lark, A., & Campbell, R. (2016). Now we know: Assessing sexual assault criminal justice case processing in an urban community using the SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) evaluation toolkit. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 12(3), 133-140. DOI:10.1097/JFN.0000000000000115