Decision-Making following Sexual Assault: Reporting Decisions and Exposure to the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

The violent crimes generally characterize substantial costs to survivors and society. These are the costs which include mental health conditions. Sufferers of sexual assault are at higher risk for having PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) developed in them. Although, Crime Victims' Compensation (CVC) is available to help people in providing costs of healthcare to those who report the sexual assault event to police. However, the fact is that many crimes are never reported. On the other hand, people who suffer from sexual assault might experience worsened post traumatic stress disorder symptoms due to their participation in the legal system. This proposal will be collecting survey data from male and female participants who have recently reported experiencing a forced or unwanted sexual event. In addition to victim perceptions and assault characteristics of the event, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder account for a major portion of the variance in reporting behavior. Particularly, avoidance of symptoms usually decreases probability of report; however, re-experiencing and hyper arousal symptoms increase the probability of police notification. Since greater avoidance symptom severity is thought to be related to severe and chronic cases of post traumatic stress disorder, it is noteworthy that these symptoms might also decrease the probability of police notification. In general, the results of this study are proposed in this paper which might suggest that the greatest need for benefits to cover the cost of future mental health care might also be less likely to satisfy CVC eligibility criteria.

Decision-Making following Sexual Assault: Reporting Decisions and Exposure to the Criminal Justice System

Introduction

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has estimated that thousands of violent crimes happen every year. These crimes have harmful effects on the mental as well as physical health of people, and can be linked with large costs to society and victims. In general, sexual assault has been found to have particularly damaging mental health of people. A major portion of these crimes go unreported despite the fact that it's a need for these crimes to be reported to police as victims have to be eligible for Crime Victims Compensation (CVC) benefits. These benefits are significant provisions for these victims, since they might act to offset societal, institutional and individual victimization's costs. A number of studies have been conducted by various researchers to identify the variables that contribute to the probability of crime reporting, and numerous theoretical models have been provided to account for factors that influence this decision. However, very few studies have examined the psychological factors (e.g. depressive or post-trauma symptomology) which involved in the decision of whether or not to report a crime.

Sexual Assault in the United States

Although, the literature shows an increase in the probability of police notification in sexual assault cases; however, the reporting rates of these cases are still low. According to the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (USDOJ), there have been around 141,000 rapes and over 80,000 other ...