"The Victim Declined To Prosecute:" Accounting for Lack of Cooperation in Sexual Assault Cases.

Research on sexual assault victimization reveals that most sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults are not reported to the police (BJS, 2002). Research also reveals that many reported sexual assaults do not result in arrest and that less than half of those arrested are convicted (BJS, 1997). Some researchers maintain that the attrition in rape cases results at least in part from lack of cooperation by the victim as the case moves forward. In this paper, we examine the victim's decision to "decline prosecution." Using data on 234 sexual assault incidents reported to a police department in the Southwestern United States, we examine the legal and extralegal factors that explain victims' lack of cooperation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]