Understanding Case Outcomes for Male Victims of Forcible Sexual Assaults.

While rape and sexual violence have long been a widespread social problem, and one that has garnered significant attention, research that specifically examines the phenomenon of male victimization of sexual violence remains lacking. Addressing the gaps in the research, the current study uses 10 years of law enforcement data from the United States' National Incident-based Reporting System (2007-2016) on sexual victimization of males 14 years of age or older. The study sought to assess the impact of victim, offender, and incident characteristics associated with the outcome of the case (i.e., open, arrest, and exceptional clearance due to the victim declining or the prosecution refusing to pursue the case) for 20,701 male victims who reported a forcible sex offense to law enforcement as well as agency variation for cleared crimes. Using multilevel multinomial logistic regression, exceptionally cleared cases are more likely to resemble open cases than those resulting in arrest with incident characteristics having a larger influence than victim and offender characteristics. Cases involving concomitant offenses, committed by a stranger, resulting in injury, increase the likelihood of arrest-all of which support the "real rape" hypothesis. Exceptionally cleared cases represent more than one-third of cleared cases and there is significant department variation in the usage of exceptional clearance, as a number of agencies are exceptionally clearing more than half of their cleared cases, artificially increasing their clearance rate. These results, in conjunction with research on female victims, suggests that the handling of sexual assault cases reported to law enforcement remains problematic.

"Men Cannot Be Raped": Correlates of Male Rape Myth Acceptance.

Despite the increased attention surrounding rape and sexual assault, research on male victims remains limited, particularly concerning the adherence to rape myths. Rape myths, which are false beliefs that are widely accepted, contribute to the justification and normalization of sexual violence by offenders and focus on the actions and behavior of victims while minimizing the harm. Addressing the gaps in the research, the present study examines how demographics, personal experiences with rape (i.e., being or knowing a survivor), and belief systems relate to rape myth adherence for male victims. The sample consisted of 1,220 adults in the United States who completed an online survey via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The number of myths endorsed ranged from 0 to 21 with a mean of 4.1 (SD = 4.7). In the final model of the hierarchical regression, results indicate rape myth acceptance was positively associated with individuals who were male, older, and more likely to believe males falsely report rapes to law enforcement at a high rate. Of the gender and sexuality attitudinal scales, individuals who adhered to female rape myths, held negative attitudes toward homosexuals, accepted traditional sexual double standards, and believed in traditional social gender roles were more likely to adhere to male rape myths. Findings demonstrate that rape myths operate similarly for male and female victims. Sexual assault programming and interventions need to address that males can be victims of sexual violence and the myths associated with male victimization in addition to generally challenging the adverse belief systems that serve as the foundation for rape myths generally.

Collateral Consequences and Effectiveness of Sex Offender Registration and Notification: Law Enforcement Perspectives.

A growing body of research has examined the collateral effects of sex offender registration and notification (SORN), particularly those related to offenders' social and economic reintegration into society. Although studies have examined public, offender, treatment provider, and other criminal justice perspectives on SORN's collateral impacts, few have elicited the views of law enforcement (LE) professionals who have contact with registered offenders. This study presents results from a mixed method study examining LE perspectives on collateral consequences and effectiveness of SORN. Results indicate that, although overall LE concern regarding collateral impacts is limited, those who are most engaged in SORN-related duties are significantly more likely to indicate such concern, and also more likely to believe that SORN was an effective public safety tool. Importantly, respondents in states with larger registries expressed greater concern over collateral consequences, and less belief in SORN's public safety efficacy. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Collateral Consequences of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration and Notification: Results From a Survey of Treatment Providers.

Among many in the research, policy, and practice communities, the application of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) to juveniles who sexually offend (JSO) has raised ongoing concerns regarding the potential collateral impacts on youths' social, mental health, and academic adjustment. To date, however, no published research has systematically examined these types of collateral consequences of juvenile SORN. Based on a survey of a national sample of treatment providers in the United States, this study investigates the perceived impact of registration and notification on JSO across five key domains: mental health, harassment and unfair treatment, school problems, living instability, and risk of reoffending. Results indicate that treatment providers overwhelmingly perceive negative consequences associated with registration with an incremental effect of notification indicating even greater concern across all five domains. Providers' demographics, treatment modalities, and client profile did not influence their perceptions of the collateral consequences suggesting that provider concern about the potential harm of SORN applied to juveniles is robust. Policy implications are discussed.

When a Cleared Rape Is Not Cleared: A Multilevel Study of Arrest and Exceptional Clearance.

As rape remains one of the most underreported and least likely to be cleared of the violent crimes, it is of paramount importance to understand the factors associated with the likelihood of a case being cleared by law enforcement. This study uses data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS), and a multilevel modeling approach to examine the relationship between victim, offender, incident, and police department characteristics contrasting the two types of clearance: arrest and exceptional clearance. The latter occurs due to reasons outside of law enforcement's control and despite being considered cleared, the offender is not arrested, charged, nor turned over for prosecution. Of the 16,231 cleared rapes in 238 departments, nearly half (47%) results in exceptional clearance when the victim refuses to cooperate or when prosecution is declined. Incident-level variables have a greater effect on the likelihood of exceptional clearance than victim and offender variables. The department explained a nontrivial amount of variation in the dependent variable, as 37% of the variance in type of clearance was between-department variation. Implications for future research on exceptional clearance and NIBRS are discussed.