{"@type": "dcat:Dataset", "accessLevel": "public", "bureauCode": ["011:21"], "contactPoint": {"@type": "vcard:Contact", "fn": "Open Data Office of Justice Programs (USDOJ)", "hasEmail": "mailto:opendata@usdoj.gov"}, "dataQuality": false, "description": "Despite the fact that most states enacted rape reform\r\nlegislation by the mid-1980s, empirical research on the effect of\r\nthese laws was conducted in only four states and for a limited time\r\nspan following the reform. The purpose of this study was to provide\r\nboth increased breadth and depth of information about the effect of\r\nthe rape law changes and the legal issues that surround them. Statistical data on all rape cases between 1970\r\nand 1985 in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia, and\r\nWashington, DC, were collected from court records. Monthly time-series\r\nanalyses were used to assess the impact of the reforms on rape\r\nreporting, indictments, convictions, incarcerations, and\r\nsentences. The study also sought to determine if particular changes,\r\nor particular combinations of changes, affected the case processing\r\nand disposition of sexual assault cases and whether the effect of the\r\nreforms varied with the comprehensiveness of the changes. In each\r\njurisdiction, data were collected on all forcible rape cases for which\r\nan indictment or information was filed. In addition to forcible rape,\r\nother felony sexual assaults that did not involve children were\r\nincluded. The names and definitions of these crimes varied from\r\njurisdiction to jurisdiction. To compare the pattern of rape reports\r\nwith general crime trends, reports of robbery and felony assaults\r\nduring the same general time period were also obtained from the\r\nUniform Crime Reports (UCR) from the Federal Bureau of Investigation\r\nwhen available. For the adjudicated case data (Parts 1, 3, 5, 7, 9,\r\nand 11), variables include month and year of offense, indictment,\r\ndisposition, four most serious offenses charged, total number of\r\ncharges indicted, four most serious conviction charges, total number\r\nof conviction charges, type of disposition, type of sentence, and\r\nmaximum jail or prison sentence. The time series data (Parts 2, 4, 6,\r\n8, 10, and 12) provide year and month of indictment, total indictments\r\nfor rape only and for all sex offenses, total convictions and\r\nincarcerations for all rape cases in the month, for those on the\r\noriginal rape charge, for all sex offenses in the month, and for those\r\non the original sex offense charge, percents for each indictment,\r\nconviction, and incarceration category, the average maximum sentence\r\nfor each incarceration category, and total police reports of forcible\r\nrape in the month. Interviews were also conducted in each site with\r\njudges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, and this information is\r\npresented in Part 13. These interviewees were asked to rate the importance\r\nof various types of evidence in sexual assault cases and to respond to\r\na series of six hypothetical cases in which evidence of the victim's past\r\nsexual history was at issue. Respondents were also presented with a\r\nhypothetical case for which some factors were varied to create 12 different\r\nscenarios, and they were asked to make a set\r\nof judgments about each. Interview\r\ndata also include respondent's title, sex, race, age, number of years\r\nin office, and whether the respondent was in office before and/or after the\r\nreform.", "distribution": [{"@type": "dcat:Distribution", "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06923.v1", "title": "Impact of Rape Reform Legislation in Six Major Urban Jurisdictions in the United States, 1970-1985"}], "identifier": "3371", "issued": "1998-05-01T00:00:00", "keyword": ["case processing", "convictions (law)", "disposition (legal)", "law reform", "rape", "rape statistics", "sentencing", "sexual assault"], "language": ["eng"], "license": "http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/", "modified": "2006-03-30T00:00:00", "programCode": ["011:060"], "publisher": {"@type": "org:Organization", "name": "National Institute of Justice", "subOrganizationOf": {"acronym": "OJP", "id": 22, "name": "Office of Justice Programs", "parentOrganization": {"acronym": "DOJ", "id": 10, "name": "Department of Justice"}, "parentOrganizationID": 10}}, "title": "Impact of Rape Reform Legislation in Six Major Urban Jurisdictions in the United States, 1970-1985"}