DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38548
title: Victim Recantation and Disengagement from Prosecution in Intimate Partner Violence Criminally Prosecuted Crimes, Washington, 2014-2016
title: Archival Version

description: This population-based retrospective cohort study involved current or former heterosexual intimate partners with a misdemeanor or felony-level criminal incident of intimate partner violence (IPV). These cases were referred to and accepted by the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office in Washington state for prosecution between the years of 2014 and 2016. The ultimate goal of this study was to better inform understanding of the factors that differentiate IPV cases involving victims who disengage from prosecution from cases involving victims who are more engaged (and likely more empowered), thereby better informing how to mitigate barriers and improve overall system response to victims who disengage. This study aimed to provide better understanding of a fuller spectrum regarding victims' needs and vulnerabilities, thereby facilitating provision of more responsive services. The comparison group consisted of otherwise comparable IPV cases that did not, at any point during the prosecution process, involve victim recantation of IPV allegations or disengagement from the prosecution of the criminal IPV case.
This study was designed to address the critical gap in IPV research by accomplishing the following specific aims:

Determine the unique and independent factors predictive of victim disengagement with IPV prosecution.
Examine prosecutorial outcomes among criminal IPV cases involving victims who disengage from prosecution relative to cases that do not involve victim disengagement.
description: The purpose of this study was to examine victim recantation of intimate partner violence (IPV) allegations or other forms of victim disengagement from the prosecution of the index IPV criminal case.
description: The research team focused exclusively on cases with female victims and male defendants since this constitutes 95% or more of the criminal cases handled by the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office's Domestic Violence Unit (KCPAO-DVU). The primary variable of interest for the proposed study was victim disengagement from the prosecution of the index IPV criminal case at any point following the filing of charges by KCPAO-DVU. The comparison group consisted of otherwise comparable IPV cases that did not, at any point during the prosecution process, involve victim disengagement from the prosecution of the criminal IPV case. Study design differed by study aim as described in detail below.
In Aim 1, the research team examined how criminal IPV cases involving victim disengagement from prosecution (victim disengagement from prosecution-positive or VDP+) differed from those for which victim disengagement from prosecution did not occur (victim disengagement from prosecution-negative or VDP-). For this aim, cases that involved victims who disengaged served as the binary dependent variable of interest (0= consistent engagement with prosecution (VDP-); 1= disengagement with prosecution (VDP+)); and victim, defendant, and relationship characteristics, prior criminal history of the defendant, and victim resource needs and additional potential risk factors of disengagement were evaluated as potential predictors.
In Aim 2, victim disengagement served as the exposure (independent) variable of interest and the disposition of the criminal case served as the outcome (dependent) variable. The independent variable of interest was victim disengagement from prosecution (VDP). The dependent variable of interest for Aim 2 was the disposition of the index criminal case classified as follows: 1) dismissed/acquitted of all charges; 2) guilty plea or finding on misdemeanor charge(s) (but no felony charge(s)); 3) guilty plea or finding on any felony charge(s). Multinomial regression was performed on the trichotomous outcome.
description: The variables in this study include victim and suspect demographics, use of weapons, use of drugs and alcohol, criminal history, employment history, poverty level measurement, other various descriptions such as pregnancy status and presence of children during the event.
Users should note that the variable <b>STUDYNUM</b> is the linking variable for all three datasets.
description: Not applicable
description: Response Rates: Not applicable
description: Presence of Common Scales: Not applicable
description: The study sample consisted of current or former heterosexual intimate partners with a misdemeanor- or felony-level criminal incident of intimate partner violence (IPV) that occurred in King County, Washington and was referred to and accepted by the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office's Domestic Violence Unit (KCPAO-DVU) for prosecution. The pool of eligible study subjects was identified using the KCPAO-DVU Prosecutor by Karpel (PbK) case management data system which captures highly detailed information on the suspects and victims involved in IPV cases in which criminal charges have been filed. Because the research team collected a number of key variables for the study from police incident reports (the image files of which were housed in PbK), the research team further limited the subject pool to a subset of referring police agencies with the most complete and thorough data available on their incident report forms. This was done to focus on agencies whose incident reports included data on the key variables of interest (many of which were collected on a Domestic Violence (DV) Supplemental Report, a form not used by all agencies). Specifically, the research team included incidents responded to by 15 of the 43 (34.9%) police agencies that referred to the KCPAO-DVU during study enrollment period. This represented 50.8% of all unduplicated (by defendant, victim and defendant-victim pair) potentially eligible incidents referred to King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office (KCPAO) between 1/1/2014 and 12/31/2016.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Victim Recantation Baseline Data
DS2: Victim Recantation Multiply Imputed Data for Court Disposition
DS3: Victim Multiply Imputed Data for VPD Outcome
description: Criminal intimate partner violence incidents in the state of Washington. Smallest Geographic Unit: None
description: record abstracts