Police interviews of sexual assault reporters: Do attitudes matter?
Abstract
Sexual assault is underreported in the United States. Survivors are often reluctant to make police reports for various reasons; one is fear of revictimization by criminal justice professionals. Conversely, police officers often lack skills for interviewing crime victims. Posttraumatic stress reactions among victims can exacerbate the problem. Although some victims prefer female interviewers, it is not known whether they are more skilled. A sample of 429 police officers completed a written survey testing their rape myth acceptance and knowledge of how to interview rape reporters. A significant relationship between rape myth acceptance and interviewing skill was discovered. Although officer gender was related to interviewing skill, the effect was mediated by rape myth acceptance. Specific officer behaviors related to high rape myth acceptance were identified. Implications for selection of police to conduct victim interviews were discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Rich & Seffrin (2012, 2013, 2014) received a score of 2 for reliability and validity due to administering author-constructed methods and providing validity and reliability scores.
“Rich & Seffrin, 2012, 2013, 2014), received a score of 2 for reliability and validity of their measure(s) due to administering author constructed methods, and providing validity and reliability scores.”
From From 'real rape' to real justice: A systematic review of police officers' rape myth beliefs (2017) · cites this paper as Rich & Seffrin, 2012
Training had a positive influence in relation to police work in that training was a bigger influence over interviewing skills (more so than general education).
“Training had a positive influence in relation to police work in that training was a bigger influence over interviewing skills (more so than general education).”
From From 'real rape' to real justice: A systematic review of police officers' rape myth beliefs (2017) · cites this paper as Rich and Seffrin (2012)
The type of agency did not seem to influence officers' interviewing skills.
“The type of agency was also influential in officers' beliefs of rape, specifically that officers from larger agencies endorsed a lower amount of rape myths than officers in smaller and more rural agencies, however, this did not seem to influence officers' interviewing skills (Rich & Seffrin, 2012).”
From From 'real rape' to real justice: A systematic review of police officers' rape myth beliefs (2017) · cites this paper as Rich & Seffrin, 2012
Female officers report knowing more rape victims personally.
“Female officers report knowing more rape victims personally.”
From From 'real rape' to real justice: A systematic review of police officers' rape myth beliefs (2017) · cites this paper as Rich and Seffrin (2012)
Officers from larger agencies endorsed a lower amount of rape myths than officers in smaller and more rural agencies.
“The type of agency was also influential in officers' beliefs of rape, specifically that officers from larger agencies endorsed a lower amount of rape myths than officers in smaller and more rural agencies, however, this did not seem to influence officers' interviewing skills (Rich & Seffrin, 2012).”
From From 'real rape' to real justice: A systematic review of police officers' rape myth beliefs (2017) · cites this paper as Rich & Seffrin, 2012
Officers may have felt obliged to portray the police service in a positive light, which could have influenced their responses.
“officers may have felt obliged to portray the police service in a positive light which in turn could have influenced their responses”
From From 'real rape' to real justice: A systematic review of police officers' rape myth beliefs (2017) · cites this paper as Rich & Seffrin, 2012
Cites
Sexual assault cases in the legal system: Police, prosecutor, and victim perspectives.
Frazier, P. A., & Haney, B. (1996) · Law and Human Behavior · doi:10.1007/bf01499234 · Cited by 319 · see citing works
Blame, shame, and community: justice responses to violence against women
Koss, M. P. (2000) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.55.11.1332 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Campbell, R. (1995) · American Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1007/bf02506938 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Police perceptions of rape victims and the impact on case decision making: A systematic review
Sleath, E., & Bull, R. (2017) · Aggression and Violent Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.avb.2017.02.003 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
From 'real rape' to real justice: A systematic review of police officers' rape myth beliefs
Parratt, K. A., & Pina, A. (2017) · Aggression and Violent Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.avb.2017.03.005 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Trauma-Informed Police Responses to Rape Victims
Rich, K. (2019) · Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma · doi:10.1080/10926771.2018.1540448 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Self-citationPolice officers' collaboration with rape victim advocates: Barriers and facilitators
Rich, K., & Seffrin, P. (2013) · Violence and Victims · doi:10.1891/0886-6708.vv-d-12-00044 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Self-citationMurphy, A., Hine, B., Yesberg, J. A., Wunsch, D., & Charleton, B. (2022) · Psychology, Crime & Law · doi:10.1080/1068316x.2021.1880584 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Sexual Assault Case Attrition: The Voices of Survivors
Murphy-Oikonen, J., Chambers, L., Miller, A., & McQueen, K. (2022) · Sage Open · doi:10.1177/21582440221144612 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Birds of a feather or fish out of water? Policewomen taking rape reports
Rich, K., & Seffrin, P. (2014) · Feminist Criminology · doi:10.1177/1557085113510551 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Self-citationHine, B. A., Murphy, A. D., Yesberg, J. A., Wunsch, D., Charleton, B., & Widanaralalage Don, B. K. S. (2021) · Police Practice and Research · doi:10.1080/15614263.2020.1843458 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
- Authors
- Rich, K., & Seffrin, P.
- Affiliations
- Marywood University (US)
- ORCID
- Seffrin, Patrick
- Venue
- Violence and Victims
- Publisher
- Springer Publishing Company
- Published
- 2012
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 263-279
- ISSN
- 0886-6708 (ISSN-L)
- 1945-7073
- OpenAlex
- W1989761579
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 8.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Violence and Victims (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
- Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
- Keywords
- sexual assault, rape myth acceptance, victim interviews, sexual assault reporting, revictimization, post-traumatic stress, police selection
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Crisis Intervention, Female, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Male, Middle Aged, Power, Psychological, Rape, United States, Police, Survivors, Crime Victims, Professional Role, Judicial Role, Law Enforcement, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
