Sexual assault is a pervasive crime leading to myriad detrimental physical and psychological health problems for the victim. Post-assault, the victim may choose to report the crime to the criminal justice system which consists of two interrelated, yet distinct stages: the investigation stage, carried out by law enforcement, and the prosecution stage, carried out by the prosecutor's office. However, in practice, most sexual assaults do not transition from the investigation stage to the prosecution stage and instead fall out of the criminal justice system process while under the purview of law enforcement. Prior literature suggests that law enforcement personnel conduct less-than-thorough investigations and do not refer cases to the prosecutor's office because they endorse rape myths concerning what qualifies as `real' rape and who can be raped. Prior research has only documented law enforcement personnel's attitudes towards rape via questionnaires and has not examined how rape myths are observed in sexual assault case investigations.Guided by social dominance theory, the current project first documented the extent and types of rape myths observed in police records of sexual assault case investigations (i.e., Study 1). Then, the current project examined the relationships between the different types of rape myths endorsed with the investigative steps completed, outcomes, and other factors of the sexual assault investigations (i.e., Study 2) so as to determine if rape myths, are used by law enforcement personnel to justify their action and inaction in sexual assault case investigations. The police records of N=248 sexual assault cases corresponding to a random sample of unsubmitted sexual assault evidence collection kits (SAKs) found in a Detroit police property storage facility in 2009 were examined as they consisted of cases that had been subjected to the less-than-thorough investigation, as indicated by each cases' corresponding unsubmitted SAK. Qualitative methods, including directed and conventional content analysis, were used to document the extent and types of rape myths in police records (i.e., Study 1). Quantitative methods, specifically path analysis, were then used to analyze the relationships between the different types of rape myths, investigatory effort, and case outcomes within the context of specific social identity factors (i.e., sex, race, and age) of the victim and perpetrator, and the number of perpetrators (i.e., Study 2).Findings reveal that law enforcement personnel drew upon traditional rape myths regarding what qualifies as `real' rape and who can be raped in order to justify their response to sexual assault. Or particular interest was the identification of a new strategy used by police, in which they blamed the victim for law enforcement personnel's inaction in sexual assault case investigations. Implications for implementing policy and practice change within the criminal justice system to improve criminal justice outcomes are discussed, as well as directions for future research.
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