What’s Missing Matters: Examining Missing Data Problems in Sexual Assault Kit Data

ABSTRACT

Hundreds of thousands of sexual assault kits (SAKs) remain unsubmitted nationwide despite their potential usefulness in the successful prosecution of alleged perpetrators. Literature explores the probative value of SAK evidence in sexual assault cases. SAK evidence is processed along a three-link criminal justice chain of custody involving (1) health-care professionals who enter data into a forensic medical report (FMR) and then transfer both to (2) law enforcement and finally to (3) crime laboratories. FMRs are transferred along one or more record management systems (RMS) and may or may not be updated by receiving agencies as new evidence is collected. Consequently, researchers who have examined SAK data nationwide have consistently encountered problems with extensive missing, unreliable, and inconsistent data entry associated with varying survivor, assault, and case characteristics. The current study examines the relationship between missing data on these characteristics and SAK submission status among 371 unsubmitted and 371 submitted SAKs in Los Angeles (1982–2010) to examine these “missingness” problems. Results reveal a significant relationship between missing SAK data and kit submission status. We argue that the “missingness matters” as it may hinder effective case processing, the capacity of scholars to conduct rigorous/valid research, and most importantly, disadvantage just outcomes for survivors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Scholars may want to conduct research examining how SAK exams were managed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

² Spohn and Tellis (2019) found that detectives submitted pre-arrest evaluations to the prosecutor prior to arresting a suspect with the expectation that the prosecutor would reject the case for prosecution, which suggests that officers use pre-arrest evaluation to dispose of weak or challenging cases rather than to ensure the accuracy and strength of evidence collected.

³ If, of course, survivors want to cooperate with the prosecution process (Murphy-Oikonen et al. 2022).

Additional information

Funding

Secondary data analysis was conducted on data initially collected under (Peterson et al. 2012b) National Institute of Justice grant [2006-DN-BX-0094].

Notes on contributors

Shannon B. Harper

Shannon B. Harper is an assistant professor of criminal justice in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and core faculty in the U.S. Latino/a Studies Program at Iowa State University. Dr. Harper’s research investigates how race/ethnicity, class, gender, and other identities intersect to shape survivors’ intimate partner violence (IPV), terroristic IPV, and intimate partner homicide (IPH) experiences and interactions with the criminal justice system. She has been published in multiple high-ranking, peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Feminist Criminology, Criminal Justice Studies, Homicide Studies, and Journal of School Violence.

Alexandra Davis

Alexandra Davis is a lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice at Eastern Washington University. She is a critical criminologist whose work focuses on crimes against Indigenous communities. Dr. Davis’ research specializations include critical criminology, intersections of federal/state/tribal policies and relationships, trauma-informed culturally nimble methods, and Indigenous methodologies.

Veronica Shepp

Veronica Shepp is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Montana State University. Dr. Shepp is a critical criminologist and her current research interests broadly include gender-based violence, sex work, workplace sexual violence, and alternatives to carceral social services. Her work also centers activism, specifically focusing on higher education labor organizing, anti-carceral response to survivors of gender-based violence, and sex worker rights.

Erin O’Callaghan

Erin O'Callaghan is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University. Dr. O’Callaghan’s research interests include sexual assault disclosure, social reactions to sexual assault disclosure, workplace sexual violence, substance-involved sexual assault, and mixed-methods research. Her activism efforts are focused on labor organizing in higher education, anti-carceral feminism, and bridging organizing in the workplace with anti-violence organizing to end sexual violence in the workplace.

Jon Maskaly

Jon Maskaly is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of North Dakota. His research focuses on police-community relationships and quantitative methods. His recent work has appeared in the Journal of Criminal Justice, Policing and Society, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and Crime & Delinquency.