Abstract
Research on sexual assault case outcomes typically limits the analysis of police decision making to cases formally cleared by arrest and of prosecutorial decision making to charging decisions that follow the arrest of the suspect. We argue that this approach, which ignores the fact that police and prosecutorial decisions overlap and influence one another, can lead to misleading conclusions about the factors that influence sexual assault case outcomes. We use data on sexual assaults reported in Los Angeles to address this issue. We define both the police decision to arrest and the prosecutor’s decision to charge in multiple ways. Our findings illustrate that the conclusions we draw about the factors that influence sexual assault case outcomes depend to some extent on the conceptualization and operationalization of decisions to arrest and charge.
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