TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1990//
TI  - Who decides? A study of the complainant's decision to prosecute in rape cases
JO  - Criminal justice and behavior
A1  - Kerstetter, Wayne A.
A1  - Winkle, Barrik Van
SP  - 268
EP  - 283
VL  - 17
IS  - 3
N2  - 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 "behavior of law" 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 0093-8548
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093854890017003003
ID  - ref1
ER  -