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Criminal Justice and Behavior
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Who Decides?

A Study of the Complainant's Decision to Prosecute in Rape Cases

WAYNE A. KERSTETTER

American Bar Foundation and University of Illinois, Chicago

BARRIK VAN WINKLE

American Bar Foundation and University of Chicago

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.

Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 17, No. 3, 268-283 (1990)
DOI: 10.1177/0093854890017003003
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