tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/police-investigations-49351/articlesPolice investigations – The Conversation2021-03-19T20:28:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1574882021-03-19T20:28:05Z2021-03-19T20:28:05ZWhat is a hate crime? The narrow legal definition makes it hard to charge and convict<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390656/original/file-20210319-13-wklc3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5982%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A memorial to the Asian American women gunned down at Gold Spa, in Atlanta, Ga., on March 18, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/flowers-adorn-gold-spa-during-a-demonstration-against-news-photo/1231796509?adppopup=true">Megan Varner/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A white man travels to one business and kills several workers. He then kills more people at a similar business. </p>
<p>Six of the eight people he killed are Asian women, leading many people to call for him to be charged under the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/georgia-hate-crime-law-atlanta-shooting/2021/03/18/d9389578-8824-11eb-8a67-f314e5fcf88d_story.html">new state hate crime law</a>. Authorities resist, saying they aren’t sure that racial bias motivated the man’s crimes.</p>
<p>That’s the situation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth">unfolding in the Atlanta area in Georgia, right now</a>. But there is often a gap between public opinion and law enforcement when people believe a hate crime has been committed, whether against LGBTQ people, racial minorities or Jewish people.</p>
<p>Hate crimes and hate murders are rising across the U.S., but long-term polling data suggests that most Americans are <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/27613/public-favors-expansion-hate-crime-law-include-sexual-orientation.aspx">horrified by bias-motivated violence</a>. They also support hate crime legislation, an effort to deter such attacks.</p>
<p>Yet officials often resist the quick classification of incidents as a hate crime. Hate crimes have precise qualities, which must be met in order to satisfy legal requirements. And even when police and prosecutors believe the elements of a hate crime are present, such crimes can be difficult to prove in court. </p>
<h2>What is a hate crime?</h2>
<p>I have studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NW3t09QAAAAJ&hl=en">hate crime and police for over 20 years</a>.</p>
<p>Hate crimes are crimes motivated by bias on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity. In some states, gender, age and gender identity are also included. Hate crime laws have been passed by 47 states and the federal government since the 1980s, when activists first began to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1389346?seq=1">press state legislatures to recognize the role of bias in violence against minority groups</a>. Today, only Arkansas, South Carolina and Wyoming do not have hate crime laws.</p>
<p>In order to be charged as a hate crime, attacks – whether assault, killings or vandalism – must be directed at individuals because of the prohibited biases. Hate crimes, in other words, punish motive; the prosecutor must convince the judge or jury that the victim was targeted because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or other protected characteristic. </p>
<p>If the defendant is found to have acted with bias motivation, hate crimes often add an additional penalty to the underlying charge. Charging people with a hate crime, then, <a href="https://jhs.press.gonzaga.edu/articles/abstract/10.33972/jhs.34/">presents additional layers of complexity</a> to what may otherwise be a straightforward case for prosecutors. Bias motivation can be hard to prove, and prosecutors can be reluctant to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720210000085003">take cases that that they may not win</a> in court.</p>
<p>It can and does happen, though. In June 2020, Shepard Hoehn placed a burning cross and a sign with racial slurs and epithets facing the construction site where his new neighbor, who is Black, was building a house. </p>
<p>Hoehn was charged with and later pleaded guilty to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/indiana-man-pleads-guilty-hate-crime-making-racially-charged-motivated-threats-toward-black">federal hate crime charges</a> in Indiana. A few months later, Maurice Diggins was convicted by a federal jury of a 2018 hate crime for breaking the jaw of a Sudanese man in Maine <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/maine-man-sentenced-federal-hate-crime-convictions">while shouting racial epithets</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Video still of young blond man in prison jumpsuit surrounded by armed guards" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Dylann Roof, who killed nine worshipers at a Black church in South Carolina in 2015, was convicted of 33 charges, including hate crimes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-image-from-the-video-uplink-from-the-detention-news-photo/477782304?adppopup=true">Grace Beahm-Pool/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>How to charge a hate crime</h2>
<p>The first use of the term “hate crime” in federal legislation was the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/101/hr1048">Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990</a>. This was not a criminal statute but rather a data-gathering requirement that mandated that the U.S. attorney general collect data on crimes that “evidenced prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.” </p>
<p>Soon, states began passing their own laws recognizing bias crimes. But hate crime legislation has not led to as many charges and convictions as activists may have hoped.</p>
<p>Law enforcement struggle to identify hate crime and prosecute the offenders. Even though 47 states have hate crime laws, 86.1% of law enforcement agencies reported to the FBI that not a single hate crime <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/topic-pages/jurisdiction">had occurred in their jurisdiction in 2019</a>, according to the latest FBI data collected.</p>
<p>In many cases, police have received <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/hate-endures-in-america-and-with-it-our-effort-to-document-the-damage">inadequate training</a> in making hate crime classification. </p>
<p>“What weights do you give to race, dope, territory? These things are 90% gray – there are no black-and-white incidents,” said <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3054119?seq=1">one 20-year veteran police officer in a 1996 study of hate crime</a>.</p>
<p>But I’ve also found that police departments are rarely organized in a way that allows them to develop the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207306054">expertise necessary to effectively investigate hate crimes</a>. When police departments have specialized police units and prosecutors who are <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814798973/policing-hatred/">committed to taking on hate crime</a>, they can develop the routines that allow them to investigate hate crime in a manner that supports victims. </p>
<p>In the late 1990s I studied a specialized police hate crime unit in a city I called, for the purposes of anonymity, “Center City.” My study revealed that those detectives could distinguish non-hate crimes – for instance, when the perpetrator angrily used the n-word in a fight – from cases that are truly hate crimes, as when the perpetrator used it during a targeted attack on a Black person. </p>
<p>Without the right training and organizational structure, officers are unclear about common markers of bias motivation, and tend to assume that they must go to extraordinary lengths to figure out why suspects committed the crime. </p>
<p>“We don’t have time to psychoanalyze people,” said the same veteran police officer in 1996.</p>
<p>Even law enforcement officers specifically trained in bias crime identification still may not name incidents as hate crime that, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/hate-endures-in-america-and-with-it-our-effort-to-document-the-damage">to the general public, seem obviously bias-driven</a>. This may be the result of police bias.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fire inspector walks through ruins of a charred building, looking at the ground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">When arson targets a temple, mosque or cultural center, it may be investigated as a hate crime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/houston-fire-department-arson-investigator-inspects-the-news-photo/463382360?adppopup=true">Aaron M. Sprecher/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Limits of the law</h2>
<p>Advocates for hate crime victims maintain that <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/hate-crime-training-for-police-is-often-inadequate-sometimes-nonexistent">police and prosecutors can do much more</a> to identify and punish hate crimes. </p>
<p>Empirical evidence supports their claims. The FBI’s 2019 report contains <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/resource-pages/hate-crime-summary#:%7E:text=Of%20the%205,512%20hate%20crime%20offenses%20classified%20as,commercial%20sex%20acts%20were%20reported%20as%20hate%20crimes.">8,559 bias crimes reported by law enforcement agencies</a>. But in the National Crime Victimization Survey, victims say that they experienced, on average, <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcs1317pp.pdf">more than 200,000 hate crimes each year</a>. This suggests that police are missing many hate crimes that have occurred. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-perceptions-of-police-fall-as-they-age-for-black-children-the-decline-starts-earlier-and-is-constant-145511">Distrust of police</a>, especially in Black communities, may dissuade minorities from even calling the police when they are victimized by hate crime for fear they could also become <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-shootings-and-race-in-america-five-essential-reads-65847">victims of police violence</a>. </p>
<p>All this means that perpetrators of hate crimes may not be caught and can reoffend, further victimizing communities that are meant to be protected by hate crime laws.</p>
<p>Hate crime laws reflect American ideals of fairness, justice and equity. But if crimes motivated by bias aren’t reported, well investigated, charged or brought to trial, it matters little what state law says.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeannine Bell is affiliated with the Law and Society Association, American Law Institute and American Bar Foundation.</span></em></p>Bias-motivated attacks became a distinct crime in the 1980s. But police investigate only a fraction of the roughly 200,000 hate crimes reported each year – and even fewer ever make it to court.Jeannine Bell, Professor of Law, Maurer School of Law, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1510352020-12-03T14:57:14Z2020-12-03T14:57:14ZSpotting liars is hard – but our new method is effective and ethical<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372830/original/file-20201203-19-sm2eg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=126%2C45%2C3684%2C2063&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Guilty? The length of your answer may give it away.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/investigation-officer-showing-murder-suspect-victim-1169300518">Motortion Films/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people lie occasionally. The lies are often trivial and essentially inconsequential – such as pretending to like a tasteless gift. But in other contexts, deception is more serious and can have harmful effects on criminal justice. From a societal perspective, such lying is better detected than ignored and tolerated.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is difficult to detect lies accurately. Lie detectors, such as polygraphs, which work by measuring the level of anxiety in a subject while they answer questions, <a href="https://theconversation.com/polygraph-lie-detector-tests-can-they-really-stop-criminals-reoffending-130477">are considered “theoretically weak”</a> and of dubious reliability. This is because, as any traveller who has been questioned by customs officials knows, it’s possible to be anxious without being guilty.</p>
<p>We have developed a new approach to spot liars based on interviewing technique and psychological manipulation, with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S221136812030005X">results just published</a> in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. </p>
<p>Our technique is part of a new generation of <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00014/full">cognitive-based lie-detection methods</a> that are being increasingly researched and developed. These approaches postulate that the mental and strategic processes adopted by truth-tellers during interviews differ significantly from those of liars. By using specific techniques, these differences can be amplified and detected. </p>
<p>One such approach is the <a href="https://osf.io/j43kr/">Asymmetric Information Management (AIM) technique</a>. At its core, it is designed to provide suspects with a clear means to demonstrate their innocence or guilt to investigators by providing detailed information. Small details are the lifeblood of forensic investigations and can provide investigators with facts to check and witnesses to question. Importantly, longer, more detailed statements <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9066-4">typically contain more clues</a> to a deception than short statements.</p>
<p>Essentially, the AIM method involves informing suspects of these facts. Specifically, interviewers make it clear to interviewees that if they provide longer, more detailed statements about the event of interest, then the investigator will be better able to detect if they are telling the truth or lying. For truth-tellers, this is good news. For liars, this is less good news.</p>
<p>Indeed, research shows that when suspects are provided with these instructions, they behave differently depending on whether they are telling the truth or not. Truth-tellers typically seek to demonstrate their innocence and commonly provide more detailed information in response to such instructions. </p>
<p>In contrast, liars wish to conceal their guilt. This means they are more likely to strategically withhold information in response to the AIM instructions. Their (totally correct) assumption here is that providing more information will make it easier for the investigator to detect their lie, so instead, they provide less information.</p>
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<img alt="Picture of a police interrogation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372658/original/file-20201202-21-ror8kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=133%2C8%2C5441%2C3661&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372658/original/file-20201202-21-ror8kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372658/original/file-20201202-21-ror8kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372658/original/file-20201202-21-ror8kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372658/original/file-20201202-21-ror8kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372658/original/file-20201202-21-ror8kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372658/original/file-20201202-21-ror8kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Liars tend to withhold information.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/junkie-man-interrogated-by-policewoman-dark-306850145">Photographee.eu/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This asymmetry in responses from liars and truth-tellers - from which the AIM technique derives its name - suggests two conclusions. When using the AIM instructions, if the investigator is presented with a potential suspect who is providing lots of detailed information, they are likely to be telling the truth. In contrast, if the potential suspect is lying then the investigator would typically be presented with shorter statements.</p>
<h2>The experiment</h2>
<p>But how effective is this approach? Preliminary research on the AIM technique has been promising. For our study, we recruited 104 people who were sent on one of two covert missions to different locations in a university to retrieve and/or deposit intelligence material. </p>
<p>All interviewees were then told there had been a data breach in their absence. They were, therefore, a suspect and faced an interview with an independent analyst. Half were told to tell the truth about their mission to convince the interviewer of their innocence. The other half were told that they could not disclose any information about their mission, and that they should come up with a cover story about where they had been at the time and place of the breach to convince the analyst of their innocence. </p>
<p>They were then interviewed, and the AIM technique was used in half of the cases. We found that when the AIM technique was used, it was easier for the interviewer to spot liars. In fact, lie-detection accuracy rates increased from 48% (no AIM) to 81% – with truth-tellers providing more information. </p>
<p>Research is also exploring methods for enhancing the AIM technique using cues which may support truth-tellers to provide even more information. Recalling information can be difficult, and truth-tellers often struggle with their recall.</p>
<p>Memory tools known as “<a href="https://www.psychologistworld.com/memory/mnemonics">mnemonics</a>” may be able to enhance this process. For example, if a witness of a robbery has provided an initial statement and cannot recall additional information, investigators could use a “change perspective” mnemonic – asking the witness to think about the events from the perspective of someone else (“what would a police officer have seen if they were there”). This can elicit new - previously unreported - information from memory. </p>
<p>If this is the case, our new technique could become even more accurate at being able to detect verbal differences between truth-tellers and liars.</p>
<p>Either way, our method is an ethical, non-accusatory and information-gathering approach to interviewing. The AIM instructions are simple to understand, easy to implement and appear promising. While initially tested for use in police suspect interviews, such instructions could be implemented in a variety of settings, such as insurance-claim settings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cody Porter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It turns out liars and truth-tellers behave very differently when questioned.Cody Porter, Senior Teaching Fellow in Psychology and Offending Behaviour, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1114052019-03-12T14:29:11Z2019-03-12T14:29:11ZWhy so many rape investigations are dropped before a suspect is charged<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262932/original/file-20190308-155539-4roarl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Motortion Films/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even after 15 years serving as a police officer, Fay still vividly remembers the first rape investigation she took part in. The survivor, a 17-year-old girl, had been raped by a man in his twenties at a party. A video-recorded interview and a medical examination took place within six hours. The suspect was swiftly located and arrested. </p>
<p>The next day, the survivor withdrew the allegation, traumatised and frightened of repercussions, feeling that she was not strong enough to see the case through. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only time Fay saw this happen.</p>
<p>In the year ending March 2018, just <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/sexualoffendingvictimisationandthepaththroughthecriminaljusticesystem/2018-12-13">5% of total recorded rapes</a> were assigned a charge or summons, according to the Office for National Statistics. </p>
<p>New data, uncovered by The Guardian from freedom of information requests, shows that even after a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the prosecution rate for rape cases in England and Wales is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/06/prosecution-rate-in-england-and-wales-falls-to-five-year-low?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">disconcertingly low and decreasing.</a> Between April and September 2018, charges were brought in 37% of cases referred to the CPS, compared to 62% in 2013-14.</p>
<p>This high proportion of “attrition” – cases getting dropped during an investigation – may stem from <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/15302/2/44F845E5.pdf">survivors withdrawing their allegations</a>, or <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jip.1469">the police ending the investigation</a>.
Research has found that rapes involving acquaintances and intimate partners <a href="https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/92128529/Hester_et_al_2016_Journal_of_Investigative_Psychology_and_Offender_Profiling.pdf">are more vulnerable</a> to attrition.</p>
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<h2>Timing and testimony</h2>
<p>Many factors can make it challenging for both the survivors and the investigators to proceed with an investigation. A delay in somebody reporting a rape can cause difficulties, for example. This delay makes it difficult to secure forensic evidence, such as semen, and any physical injuries such as bruises or scratches may have healed or faded. In our own, ongoing research, in which we’re analysing more than 120 failed rape investigations, we’re finding that rape survivors waited an average of nearly two weeks to come forward to the police, regardless of whether they knew their perpetrators. </p>
<p>A crucial part of any investigation into an alleged rape is a video-recorded, police interview. Physical evidence can prove that the intercourse happened, but not the absence of consent, so it’s important to establish this in an interview. We’re finding that a delay between reporting the rape and the interview can have an impact on whether or not allegations are withdrawn – and really reduce the chance of prosecution. Human memory for details <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.lawsocsci.093008.131529">declines with time</a>, yet the police are highly reliant on a survivor’s ability to recall specific details <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895816668937">when assessing the credibility of their testimony</a>. </p>
<p>While all cases of domestic violence must be reviewed by the CPS, there’s no current requirement regarding rape cases. That means only cases in which the police <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/charging-directors-guidance-2013-fifth-edition-may-2013-revised-arrangements">believe there is sufficient evidence</a> are referred to prosecutors. However, the <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/cps-policy-prosecuting-cases-rape">guidelines</a> for making this referral state that where there has been a delay in reporting and where there is no evidence of a lack of consent, securing a charge will be difficult.</p>
<h2>Victim credibility</h2>
<p>Assessing the credibility of the testimony has always been a thorny topic both in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327957pspr1003_2">research</a> and for the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1295273">police</a>. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00450618.2017.1281348">Bias</a>, such as investigators’ unfounded beliefs on a particular suspect’s involvement, can consciously or unconsciously affect how they <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418825.2017.1406977">evaluate testimony</a> and even their interpretation of DNA evidence. For example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1355030611000967?via%3Dihub">one study showed</a> that when examining a mixed sample of DNA from a gang rape, a forensic DNA examiner believing a particular suspect was involved was more likely to conclude that the suspect’s DNA was present than a forensic examiner who did not have such a prior belief.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, victims of rape are often faced with harsh judgements and can be incorrectly blamed for what happened to them. Their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10683169608409779">dress</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260507300754?casa_token=PV18BYhrtwQAAAAA:tczTqcAJ-TbBQHzUSMGw4Kl6Orcy7OtdV2bEuoAelcqlUXcc3ZWvStPZRobAbE2x28GyqnRzzhBJVA">racial background</a>, and even <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1977.tb00171.x">attractiveness</a> can influence how they are assessed by those involved in legal proceedings. </p>
<p>In another ongoing study, we’re finding that jurors are also more likely to judge rape victims who know the perpetrator as less credible and more responsible for the incidents. This helps to explain why rape allegations against partners or acquaintances are <a href="https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218144322/http:/rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors196.pdf">less likely to proceed</a> in the criminal justice system. </p>
<h2>Seeing investigations through</h2>
<p>There have been some <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228759378_Critical_issues_in_rape_investigation_An_overview_of_reform_in_England_and_Wales">improvements</a> in the quality of rape investigations in the past few decades. Frontline police officers are now trained to collect physical evidence promptly. A network of almost 50 <a href="https://ukafn.org/useful-info/sarc-map/">Sexual Assault Referral Centres</a> (SARCs) around the UK now also give survivors more control over how and when they <a href="https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1471-0528.2003.02233.x">make a report of rape.</a> </p>
<p>Still, rape attrition remains a complicated issue and examining when and how victims drop out of the investigation process could provide ways to reduce it. We need to understand why survivors delay reporting to the police, and lower any barriers for this. Promoting general awareness of SARCs may be beneficial, as would making sure the police have the resources they need to record video interviews with rape survivors as quickly as possible after they report a rape. Early review of rape cases by the CPS could also help to ensure that evidence is gathered as comprehensively as possible. </p>
<p>Reforms in rape investigation have undoubtedly given survivors more control over when and how they can step forward. We now must focus on what happens after this to provide support and confidence in the earliest stages of investigation to assist their access to justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111405/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Delays in reporting a rape and in recording a video interview with police can have an impact on whether an investigation continues.Ching-Yu Huang, Lecturer in Psychology, Bournemouth UniversityFay Sweeting, PhD Candidate, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/911442018-02-04T20:37:47Z2018-02-04T20:37:47ZHow police are recovering the victims of the Toronto serial killer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205614/original/file-20180208-180826-r0kf7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Forensic anthropologist Prof. Kathy Gruspier (left) is seen with police officers at a Toronto property where alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur worked. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Toronto police say <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mcarthur-mallory-excavation-1.4526240">they’ve recovered the remains</a> of at least six people in the midst of their investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.</p>
<p>They have been searching at least 30 properties that <a href="http://nationalpost.com/feature/bruce-mcarthur-small-town-sock-salesman-to-accused-serial-killer">McArthur</a> accessed in the course of his work as a landscaper.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking this is huge task to undertake, you’re right.</p>
<p>As a forensic anthropologist in northeastern Ontario — and a consultant to the Office of the Chief Coroner and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service — I have had to deal with homicide cases where the recovery of human remains at a crime scene is made more challenging by the frigid temperatures that a Canadian winter so often brings.</p>
<p>Given the blanket media attention on the Toronto case, it’s important for the public to understand the procedures in such investigations.</p>
<p>All death investigations in the province of Ontario fall under the Coroner’s Act of Ontario. That act provides the coroner exceptional powers to seize evidence and enter properties for the purposes of a death investigation. </p>
<h2>Coroners don’t perform autopsies</h2>
<p>The coroner also has the power to <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/02/02/toronto-police-seeking-help-from-other-agencies-in-bruce-mcarthur-investigation.html">enlist various services</a> to assist with the investigation. </p>
<p>In practical terms, this means local or provincial police services. This assistance continues through to the post-mortem examinations of human remains by a forensic pathologist. </p>
<p>It’s important to clear up a misconception most people have about death investigations —namely, that coroners do autopsies. Although in Ontario coroners must be medical doctors, they do not perform autopsies; pathologists do. </p>
<p>In the case of criminal death investigations, specially trained and certified forensic pathologists perform the autopsies. Sometimes, when the remains lack soft tissue, a forensic anthropologist is brought in to analyze the bones’ characteristics to assist in their identification.</p>
<p>The search for human remains in any case is done in a systematic fashion. </p>
<p>A process is followed to determine if a scene is relevant to the investigation, and where on that scene is the most likely place to find human remains. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204739/original/file-20180204-19918-sb3hwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204739/original/file-20180204-19918-sb3hwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204739/original/file-20180204-19918-sb3hwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204739/original/file-20180204-19918-sb3hwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204739/original/file-20180204-19918-sb3hwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204739/original/file-20180204-19918-sb3hwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204739/original/file-20180204-19918-sb3hwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Ontario Provincial Police officer on a property north of Madoc, Ont., where they’re searching for the remains of one victim.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Police investigators will have a reason to suspect evidence may be at a particular location. In this case, police will examine records specifying where the suspect worked.</p>
<p>This is then refined by police interviewing people acquainted with the suspected killer. In the McArthur investigation, for example, his onetime clients could be pointing investigators to the locations of his landscaping projects. </p>
<p>Once that’s done, police begin testing an area for the presence of human remains.</p>
<p>The search for human remains can take many forms. In order to narrow down the search area, I have had success using human remains detection dogs, also known as cadaver dogs. These dogs don’t actually search for bodies as much as they search for the scents that are given off by decomposing human remains. </p>
<p>Toronto police also reportedly used canine units in a backyard in the city, and identified an area of the yard where the earth had been disturbed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204740/original/file-20180204-19956-dzksqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204740/original/file-20180204-19956-dzksqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204740/original/file-20180204-19956-dzksqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204740/original/file-20180204-19956-dzksqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204740/original/file-20180204-19956-dzksqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204740/original/file-20180204-19956-dzksqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204740/original/file-20180204-19956-dzksqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A search and rescue specialist gives her dog some water as they search for survivors and human remains following tornadoes in Alabama in 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Dave Martin)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A dog is capable of detecting decomposition scents even in cold weather. Searchers may try to enhance scent availability by scraping the ground or even putting small bore holes into the ground, and then have the dog sniff that area. </p>
<p>The dog will indicate where it detects a scent that it’s been trained to find. </p>
<p>Ground-penetrating radar is also used in these cases. This instrument has a flattened surface that is pulled like a sled over an area while it sends sound waves into the ground. </p>
<p>Those waves are sent back to the device and it records the different ground densities at various depths to indicate if there’s something buried in that location. Once an area has been identified for excavation, that process begins.</p>
<p>The actual excavation process is hampered by freezing temperatures. Such temperatures will harden the soil, seemingly to the consistency of concrete.</p>
<h2>Tents and heaters</h2>
<p>When encountering conditions like these, I recommend placing a tent over the scene and then heating the surface of the area to be excavated. Toronto police, indeed, reportedly thawed the frozen ground in the Toronto backyard using a tent and heaters.</p>
<p>Industrial heaters force hot air over the soil surface; however, as hot air rises, this process can take hours. Only the top two centimetres or so of the soil is thawed enough for removal.</p>
<p>Once the next frozen layer is reached, the process continues. This goes on until the remains are exposed and can be photographed in place.</p>
<p>Further thawing will ultimately free the remains for collection and transportation to forensic authorities for examination.</p>
<p>As you can imagine, if this is happening at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/01/31/bruce-mcarthur-investigation-police-combing-through-more-than-30-properties-linked-to-alleged-killer_a_23349550/">30 separate scenes</a>, the search-and-recovery process in the Toronto serial killer case will extend over several weeks, unless most of these potential scenes have already been searched and cleared by police. </p>
<p>But given the resources that the Toronto Police Service and the Coroner’s Office have at their disposal, they are certainly more than equal to the task at hand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott I. Fairgrieve does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Police in Toronto say they’ve found the remains of at least six people in the midst of their investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur. Here’s what goes on in such investigations.Scott I. Fairgrieve, Professor of Forensic Anthropology, Laurentian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.