Should we make the arrest? In this episode we speak with Professor Cassia Spohn about sexual assault, specifically decision-making in sexual assault cases.
Cassia is a Regents Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at ASU. One of her main areas of research focuses on examining the response of the criminal justice system to the crime of sexual assault. She has examined prosecutors’ decisions to charge or not in these cases and most recently completed a comprehensive study of police and prosecutorial decision making in sexual assault cases in Los Angeles. She also is a member of the Dept of Defense Advisory Committee on the investigation, prosecution and defense of sexual assault in the armed forces.
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Episode Transcriptions Available Below for Download: Word (.docx) and PDF (.pdf)
Get in touch with Cassia:
Arizona State University Website // Cassia.Spohn AT asu.edu
These are the articles authored by Cassia that was discussed in this episode of The Crim Academy:
Spohn, Cassia, and Katharine Tellis. (2019). Sexual assault case outcomes: Disentangling the overlapping decisions of police and prosecutors. Justice Quarterly. [Article Link]