Alyssa Lark, Brigham Young University
Health
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of a community-based sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program on sexual assault criminal case outcomes in Salt Lake County, Utah.
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) published a toolkit in 2013 to measure prosecution outcomes in sexual assault cases when a SANE program exists in a community. It is believed one outcome of SANE programs is higher prosecution rates, although this outcome has not been evaluated in any large scale. The toolkit was piloted in six sites in the United States. Salt Lake County is the first site to implement the toolkit outside of the pilot sites. The NIJ hopes multiple sites will utilize the toolkit to create a national database of sexual assault criminal case outcomes.
2241 charts from 2003 – 2011 were reviewed to create a study population meeting necessary criteria. 30 random cases per year were selected, creating 270 random study cases. Cases were divided into their respective law enforcement (LE) agencies. Memorandums of Understanding were established with eleven Salt Lake County LE agencies to provide suspects’ names for cases referred to the District Attorney (DA). The final criminal case outcome for each referred case was searched through the court docketing system.
34% of sexual assault cases were referred by LE to the DA. The results of criminal case outcomes are as follows: 91% not charged, 3% charged but later dropped, 5% pled or plea bargain reached, 0% trial with acquittal, and 1% trial with conviction. These percentages are compared with other sites. Additionally, qualitative data was obtained as many LE agencies listed why cases were not referred to the DA.
These findings have been disseminated to community partners: law enforcement, victim advocates, forensic scientists, and prosecution, leading to positive changes to increase prosecution rates.