Examining Race and Sexual Assault Kit Submission: A Test of Black's Behavior of Law Theory

• In Event: Impact of Race and Gender on Criminal Justice Outcomes

Abstract

Following a sexual assault, victims are advised to have a medical forensic exam and undergo a sexual assault kit (SAK) collection. The SAK is then held in police storage until it undergoes testing at a crime lab. Unfortunately, tens of thousands of SAKs in the United States remain untested. This paper positions SAK submission by police as a relevant decision-making point in sexual assault case processing. Guided by Black’s theory of law, this paper seeks to examine if white and minority victims systematically experience differential access to justice in terms of getting their respective SAKs submitted. Using data from a 1982-2012 Sexual Assault Kit Backlog Study in Los Angeles, California, the current study explores the relationship between race and SAK submission, legal (eg., case specific) and extralegal (eg., victim characteristics) variables across 1,826 backlogged SAKs and 339 non-backlogged SAKs. As not all SAKs are backlogged, this study seeks to understand if a victim’s race and/or ethnicity is a statistically significant predictor in the police decision to submit her SAK. Implications for sexual assault reporting by minority women are discussed.

Author

• Norah Ylang, Arizona State University