Factors Impacting Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse, Physical Abuse, and Neglect Cases Processed Through a Children's Advocacy Center

Abstract

This study examined the impact of victim, offender, and case characteristics on the decision to accept cases of child maltreatment for prosecution. Data were collected over a 2-year period from a large southern Children's Advocacy Center, and the final sample consisted of 467 substantiated cases of child sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. Logistic regression results indicated that sexual abuse cases were significantly more likely to be accepted for prosecution compared to physical abuse and neglect. Additionally, cases involving female victims and male offenders were more likely to be moved forward. When each type of maltreatment was examined separately, logistic regression results indicated that victim and offender age significantly impacted the decision to prosecute sexual abuse cases. Offender gender and age, as well as availability of medical evidence predicted physical abuse case acceptance, and offender gender and frequency of maltreatment significantly impacted prosecutorial decision making for cases of neglect.

Keywords:

• child sexual abuse
• physical abuse
• neglect
• prosecution

Notes

1. This model was run three ways; first holding physical abuse out as a reference group, then neglect, and then sexual abuse. In all three models, sexual abuse was more likely to be accepted for prosecution.

2. The medical evidence independent variable was left out of the neglect model because cell sizes for this variable were very low (yes = 12, 6%) and logistic regression can be very sensitive to small cell sizes (see Leech et al., 2005).