Understanding Intimate Partner Sexual Assaults: Findings from Sexual Assault Kits

ABSTRACT

In 2013, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, began DNA testing and investigating nearly 5000 previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits (SAKs) from 1993 through 2009. We examined case files from a sample of SAKs that were tested but not previously adjudicated (n = 429). More than 10% (n = 45) involved victims who reported to police that a former or current intimate partner sexually assaulted them. This article integrates the available data on the offenders, the victims, the initial investigation, and the specifics of the assaults to provide a more complete understanding of intimate partner sexual assault (IPSA). More than one-third of the IPSA offenders were serial sex offenders; that is, the offenders sexually assaulted an intimate partner and another person(s). Comparing IPSAs to all other sexual assaults, IPSAs more frequently involved bodily force, less frequently involved a weapon, and IPSA investigations were more frequently closed because (1) the victims stated they lied or the police doubted the victims and (2) the victims declined to prosecute. The most common sequencing of events was a demand for sex by the offender followed by a verbal refusal by the victim and the use of bodily force in the sexual assault. The findings, however, indicate a great deal of variation in the sequencing of events surrounding the sexual assault, with over 25% involving no physical confrontation before or after the sexual assault and no demands for sex. Unsubmitted SAK data provide a unique window into understanding the understudied and underreported issue of IPSA.

KEYWORDS:

• Family/domestic violence
• gender issues
• intimate partner violence
• offender/perpetrator
• physical abuse
• rape
• sexual assault
• victim

Acknowledgments

We first want to thank all of the survivors who inadvertently shared with us their stories of intimate trauma. We’ve read your stories and promise to do our best to make sure they no longer remain shelved. We would also like to thank the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and the Task Force for inviting us to sit at your table. Without your support, this project would not have happened. We would also like to thank all members of the research team for your hard work and dedication. Lastly, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by Grant Nos. [2015-AK-BX-K021 and 2016-AK-BK-K016] awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Pilot research was supported by a research grant from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.