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Date
7-2020
Description
In this research brief, we assess the integration of victim advocacy on the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force (Task Force). The Task Force created a multidisciplinary team (MDT) to focus solely on cold cases of sexual assaults, and the MDT uniquely incorporates victim advocates. The research team observed how the victim advocates influenced the MDT to assess (a) the integration of the victim advocates into a Task Force, (b) how well victim-centered behaviors and attitudes were exhibited by all members of the Task Force, and (c) whether people believed the integration of advocates or victim-centeredness impacted the Task Force outcomes. The findings highlight the utility of including victim advocates as full team members and how their participation influences investigation and prosecution. Recommendations are provided for other jurisdictions interested in implementing victim advocates onto their cold case investigations.
Keywords
sexual violence, sexual assault kits, Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
Disciplines
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Luminais, Misty; Lovell, Rachel; McGuire, Margaret; Klingenstein, Joanna; Kavadas, Angela; and Overman, Laura, "Impact of Victim Advocacy Integration on Cold Case Investigations: Lessons Learned from the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force" (2020). Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education Reports and Briefs. 11.
https://commons.case.edu/beguncenter-reports/11