@article{ref1,
title="Who decides? A study of the complainant's decision to prosecute in rape cases",
journal="Criminal justice and behavior",
year="1990",
author="Kerstetter, Wayne A. and Winkle, Barrik Van",
volume="17",
number="3",
pages="268-283",
abstract="A criminal complainant's decision to prosecute has long been recognized as an important aspect of criminal justice case processing. Much of the literature regards this decision as a simple expression of a victim's volition. On the basis of interviews with detectives, prosecutors, and a victims' advocate and quantitative analyses (based on a sample of police files), it was concluded that police officers have a substantial influence on a complainant's decision to prosecute. The study also assessed evidence for three explanations for officials influencing complainants' decisions: feminist conflict theory, Black's &quot;behavior of law&quot; hypotheses, and the need to efficiently allocate scarce resources. It was found that the need to efficiently allocate resources best explained the data.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0093-8548",
doi="10.1177/0093854890017003003",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093854890017003003"
}