Citation

Spencer D, Dodge A, Ricciardelli R, Ballucci D. Crit. Criminol. 2018; 26(2): 189-209.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Society of Criminology, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10612-018-9390-2

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Criminal justice responses to sexual violence have long been critiqued for either failing or further victimizing complainants. The ways that police can be complicit in these shortcomings is well documented, but less is known about how police officers themselves identify and understand the barriers to justice within the criminal justice system. In this article, we use data from 70 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with sex crime investigators to explore police interpretations of the obstacles to achieving justice in cases of sexual violence. Our findings demonstrate that the majority of officers are critical of the present criminal justice response to sexual violence and are doubtful of its ability to provide a semblance of justice to the majority of victims.

Language: en