Public policy, law enforcement, and protection for adolescent children of sexual abuse

Results of a Fall, 2006 pilot study indicated that law enforcement officers generally perceived statutory rape as a social and moral issue, rather than a criminal act. As a measure of child protection, statutory rape laws are in place to impose moral and criminal sanctions upon adults who engage in such behaviors. Statutory rape is one form of child sexual abuse; a lax response to community reports may lend more girls at risk of re-victimization and pose important health policy concerns. Presumably, statutory rape occurs most among African American and Latina children; as manifested by disproportionately higher rates of pregnancy, births, and sexually transmitted infections. Purpose: To verify findings of the qualitative pilot study by conducting a state-wide assessment of law enforcement officers' response to statutory. Methods: A multi-stage sampling method to ascertain a minimum of 2000 randomly selected law enforcement officers from all six Ohio law enforcement districts. Data will be collected during the Spring, 2007. Based upon the qualitative results, we expect to find some level of state-wide consistency in law enforcements response to statutory rape. Preliminary results: Statutory rape was perceived as a low priority crime lacking in seriousness. The lack of: evidentiary harm to the teen, a written response protocol, and compliance from involved parties acted as barriers to providing an effective response. Policy implications: The results may: 1) provide an unprecedented perspective on the implementation of statutory rape policies by law enforcements, 2) provide valuable information to assist courts, judges, and prosecutors in understanding the insidious nature of statutory rape and the impact of such offences on community safety and public health. 3) be used to direct curricular intervention and training of law enforcement officers.