Citation

Quinlan A. Women Crim. Justice 2016; 26(4): 301-318.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/08974454.2015.1124823

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Despite several decades of institutional reforms in sexual assault policing, sexual assault police investigators continue to dismiss a disproportionate number of sexual assault reports as unfounded. This article examines the policing practices behind these trends by outlining the techniques that police use to assess the credibility and truthfulness of survivors' reports of sexual assault. Drawing on 17 semistructured interviews with sexual assault investigators working in urban policing organizations in Ontario, Canada, this article reveals how investigative techniques in sexual assault cases often rest on normative assumptions about who real survivors are and how they behave. Through this analysis, this article illustrates how survivors of sexual assault can become suspect in sexual assault investigations.

Language: en