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Show moreIn this research brief, we assess the integration of victim advocacy on the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force (Task Force). The Task Force created a multidisciplinary team (MDT) to focus solely on cold cases of sexual assaults, and the MDT uniquely incorporates victim advocates. The research team observed how the victim advocates influenced the MDT to assess (a) the integration of the victim advocates into a Task Force, (b) how well victim-centered behaviors and attitudes were exhibited by all members of the Task Force, and (c) whether people believed the integration of advocates or victim-centeredness impacted the Task Force outcomes. The findings highlight the utility of including victim advocates as full team members and how their participation influences investigation and prosecution. Recommendations are provided for other jurisdictions interested in implementing victim advocates onto their cold case investigations.
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Show moreThis report describes patterns of sexual offending. The exploratory examination of the typology of offending helps describe different types of sexual assaults by providing context behind how these different types of sexual assaults occur and who the offenders may be. Guided by the scientific literature on sexual assaults and violence against women, we examined data on our sample of 243 Sexual Assault Kits (SAKs) to discern a pattern for four types of sexual assaults: sexual assaults that involve kidnapping, sexual assaults committed by strangers, sexual assaults committed by multiple offenders, and sexual assaults that involve captivity.
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Show moreThis report provides data describing how sexual assault reports from the unsubmitted sexual assault kits that were not previously indicted were initially processed through the system from the Reporting Phase, to the Initial Investigative Phase, and the Prosecution Phase. We then track what is currently happening with these cases as part of the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) Pilot Research Project.
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