Project Two: Research Report

My paper is inquiring about the genres present in the community of lawyers who prosecute sexual assault and violent crimes. I have ten sources that I plan to integrate into my paper, mainly in the opening paragraphs, but will only discuss five in this paper. The sources range from articles about helping community relationships improve the prosecution rates to the examination of the decision- making process in prosecutors trying sexual assault cases. The sources will support the background network interweaved throughout the community of lawyers. They will demonstrate the behind the scene thought processes of the prosecutors. Each source looks at a different perspective and analyzes different characteristics the prosecution looks for when deciding whether or not they will charge a suspect and take the case to trial.

The first source I plan on using is Lisa Frohmann’s article “Constituting Power in Sexual Assault Cases: Prosecutorial Strategies for Victim Management." This source shows the evolution of the processing of victim complaint filings by prosecutors. What was once filled with victim “humiliation, intimidation, and shame,” (Frohmann 1998) has implemented changes, but still remains a primary reason behind low prosecution rates in sexual assault cases. This source looks specifically at one genre found in this community, the complaint filing interview. This interview is really the first view the prosecutor gets on the victim, leaving them to evaluate the victim to see if they will be problem. A problematic victim would be one who is uncooperative and interrupts the course the case follows. As far as the prosecutor goes, they too can be problematic in the complaint filing interview. A problematic prosecutor is one who does not treat the victim in the manner they should be treated, considering the trauma they’ve endured. For example, a prosecutor who targets the victim and blames the victim for what they were wearing or makes the victim feel ashamed because they have partaken in many sexual relations with many different people. As far as how this source is relevant to my paper is that it tackles a specific genre in the community, addresses the perspective of the prosecutor, and explains the evolution and pitfalls of that specific genre, the complaint filing interviews.

Cassia Spohn and David Holleran wrote the next source I will be using in my paper, "Prosecuting Sexual Assault: A Comparison of Charging Decisions in Sexual Assault Cases Involving Strangers, Acquaintances, and Intimate Partners." This article looks into the prosecutor’s decision to charge a person, depending on how well they knew the victim and how intimate they were with each other. The trend seems to be that the more familiar the victim and suspect are and the more intimate they have been together, the less likely a prosecutor will charge the suspect. An important genre this source addresses is the initial motion to file, whether or not the prosecutor decides to prosecute the case and try it in court. The relevancy with my paper is that it gives a perspective of what a prosecutor looks at when deciding to take a case to trial, and the characteristics of the suspects and victims in the cases that are taken to trial. Prosecutors have a lot of room to work with when deciding whether or not to prosecute a case, another point that this source will support. They are allowed these liberties, when deciding to prosecute a case, due to the fact that there isn’t any regulations or parameters they need to follow and practically no one to oversee them. This source contains numerous amounts of support toward the genres in the communities of lawyers who prosecute sexual assault crimes, and shows evidence of the thought processes of those lawyers.

The research paper by Janice Du Mont and Terri L. Myhr, “So Few Convictions: The Role of Client-Related Characteristics in the Legal Processing of Sexual Assaults.", analyzes the characteristics of the victim, rather than that of the suspect, when charging cases. This source runs along the same like as the one written by Spohn and Holleran, making it a good source to use to support each other and support what characteristics prosecutors of sexual crimes look for when deciding to take them to trial. I would use this source in my paper not only as a way to back up what was said by Spohn and Holleran, but also to show more the deciding characteristics in the victims, not just for the suspects. For example, the article looks at characteristics like whether or not the victim resisted her attacker or knowing the assailant for less than twenty-four hours. Both of those cases would see less of a chance of being given the go ahead for prosecution and going to trial. As for the relevancy to my paper, just like the last source by Spohn and Holleran, this source gives a look at how prosecutors decide to try a case based on the characteristics of the victim.

In the same manner that the last two sources looked at the deciding factors prosecutors look for when deciding to charge a suspect and prosecute the case, so does this source. There is a difference however, when comparing the characteristics the other two sources look for and what this article, “Adult sexual assault: The role of racial/ethnic composition in prosecution and sentencing” by Rodney Kingsworth, John Lopez, and Jennifer Wentworth, looks at. This article looks at how race and ethnicity factor in when prosecutors choose to charge someone and try the case. The other two sources looked at the relationships of the victim and attacker, or just characteristics of the victim. The relevancy this source has to my paper is that it gives the paper a well-rounded view of what factors impact the prosecutors’ decision to charge an assailant and proceed to trial. This gives a look at the processes the lawyers in this community go through and the decision they face every day in regards to sexual assault and abuse cases. This source provides evidence and statistics about how much an assailant’s race or ethnicity impacts their likelihood of being charged and their case being prosecuted. All in all, this source adds a more balanced view of the deciding factors for prosecutors to try a case.

Megan Alderden and Sarah Ullman co-wrote the research paper "Creating a More Complete and Current Picture: Examining Police and Prosecutor Decision-Making when Processing Sexual Assault Cases." This article takes a more extensive look into the process prosecutors go through to decide to prosecute a case, while also looking from a police perspective. Due to the fact that law enforcement and prosecution work so closely together, it is interesting to see what thoughts the police have when figuring the details of a case and whether or not they advise a prosecutor to take a case to trial. With the other sources we see that many of the factors rely on the physical attributes of either the victim or the attacker, and also the relationship between the two of them. An interesting point this source brings up is the police being wary of victims whose statements are inconsistent. An inconsistent statement is the first factor in any of the sources which doesn’t directly correlate to any physical attributes, qualities of a relationship, or actual aspects of the assault itself. This source looks more into the legal process and the faults discovered in the victim or assailant after the physical crime itself has occurred. I would use this source in my paper to further support the behind the scene decisions that are made by prosecutors when selecting which cases they are going to try. This source shows a much more legal view on the deciding factors for the prosecution, rather than physical attributes or the nature of the relationship between the victim and the assailant. I would also use this source to demonstrate the amount of assistance the prosecution gets from local law enforcement.

At this point in my paper I would bring everything in full circle, giving the reader a full on view of the all the points my paper hit. Also, I would give the answer to my inquiry, the one I will have made throughout the paper, highlighting the textual evidence I used and support from the sources. The first five sources I wrote about show a great deal of insight on how exactly prosecutors decide which cases to bring to trial and what characteristics they look for, in both the assailant and the victim, when choosing whether or not to take a case to court and try it. The other five sources I used, but did not discuss here, give much of the same perspective of the decision making process in the prosecution and also include more genres found in the community of these lawyers that prosecute sexual assault crimes. All of the sources show a very well-rounded view of all of the elements that go into prosecuting a sexual assault case, on both the assailant’s side and the victim’s.