The underreporting of sexual assault cases is one common denominator that many researchers can agree on is an issue. This review is going to take a look at two sets of research articles that analyzes two different perspectives of underreporting of sexual assault. The first section of this review is going to analyze the criminal justice system respond to claims of sexual assault from the police investigators to the prosecutors charging decisions. The second section of this review is going to discuss the the accuracy of false allegations of sexual assault cases. In Spohn and Tellis (2012) the criminal justice system response to sexual assault from the first stage of the investigation when the detective decides to move forward in the arrest. …show more content…
The overall assertion is prosecutors are quicker to file charges in aggravated rape cases than in simple rapes case where the victim’s behavior can delay charging decision. In the Spohn and Holleran (2001) Prosecuting Sexual Assault A Comparison Of Charging Decision Is Sexual Assault Cases Involving Stranger’s Acquaintance In Intimate Partners. similar to the above study researchers focus on the prosecution decision to file charges in sexual assault cases based on factors such as the victims relationship to the defendant, the victim characteristics, and the type of rape (aggravated or simple rape). Spohn and Holleran (2001) identifies the two types of classifications rape that prosecutors use in determining when to move forward in the charging decision. Aggravated rape is the first classification and the second is simple rape. Researcher suggests “all women in all rapes are not treated equally and suggest that both case law and criminal justice decision markers differentiate between aggravated and simple rape.” (Spohn and Holleran 2001, P.656) the results of this study showed that aggravated rape victim behavior was less likely to be called into question versus simple rapes where prosecutors decision to file charges was based on the victims …show more content…
Nicksa, and Cote (2010) False Allegation Of Sexual Assault And Analysts Of Ten Years Of Reported Cases. The researchers set out to examine the actual percentage of false allegations of sexual assault. The purpose of the study was to provide clarity to previous data that were researched on the number of false rape allegations. According to Lisak, Gardinier,. Nicksa, and Cote (2010) “most of the sources report data ranging from 1.5% to 90% which cannot be relied upon because they are based on one of scrutinize police classifications.” (Lisak, Gardinier, Nicksa, and Cote 2010, p.1322) This study looked at 136 cases of reported rape at Northeastern University over a 10 year span the researchers. The results of this research that out of 136 cases of sexual assault 5.9% were deemed to be false accusation. Tying into this article was the rebuttal research from In JoAnn Belknap’s (2010) study Rape Too Hard To Report Into Easy To Discredit Victims. This article Challenge the accuracy of David Lisak and his associates findings in their asserting that their data for false accusation provided inconsistent number. Belknap (2010) question if 5% of rapes among college women are reported to campus police how can 5.9% of rapes reported on college campus are false accusations reports. according to Belknap (2010) 95% of college women do not report their rate victimization to the police 5% the Lisak is saying that 5% is false accusation. The problem with this study