ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how prosecutors account for the decision to reject sexual assault cases for prosecution and looks at the centrality of discrediting victims' rape allegations in this justification. A number of studies on sexual assault have found that victim credibility is important in police decisions to investigate and make arrests in sexual assault cases. This chapter analyzes the kinds of accounts prosecutors offer in sexual assault cases to support their complaint-filing decisions. Examining the justifications for decisions provides an understanding of how these decisions appear rational, necessary, and appropriate to decision-makers as they do the work of case screening. Sexual assault cases are among those crimes that have been deemed by the state legislature to be priority prosecution cases. The presence of criminal connections can also be used as a resource for identifying ulterior motives. Knowledge of a victim's criminal activity enables prosecutors to find ulterior motives for allegation.
