Police Mishandling of Sexual Assault Cases in the District of Columbia
This 196-page report concludes that in many sexual assault cases, the police did not file incident reports, which are required to proceed with an investigation, or misclassified serious sexual assaults as lesser or other crimes. Human Rights Watch also found that the police presented cases to prosecutors for warrants that were so inadequately investigated that prosecutors had little choice but to refuse them and that procedural formalities were used to close cases with only minimal investigation. The mayor and City Council should create an independent mechanism to monitor police department response to sexual assault complaints, Human Rights Watch said.
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ISBN: 1-56432-978-X
ISBN: 1-56432-978-X
Feature Content
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- Download the full report
- Download the Supplement: Improving Police Response to Sexual Assault
- Download the Fact Sheet
- Download Human Rights Watch’s May Letter to MPD Chief Cathy Lanier
- Download MPD’s June Response Letter to Human Rights Watch
- Download Human Rights Watch’s December Letter to MPD Chief Cathy Lanier
- Download MPD’s December Response Letter to Human Rights Watch
- Download Human Rights Watch’s January Letter to MPD Chief Cathy Lanier
- Download Human Rights Watch’s Latest Letter to MPD Chief Cathy Lanier
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- Capitol Offense
- Glossary / Examples of Statements
- Summary
- Recommendations
- Methodology
- I. Background
- II. Police Failure to Document and Investigate
- III. Vulnerable Cases
- IV. Police Mistreatment of Victims
- V. Improving Sexual Assault Investigations
- VI. International Human Rights Obligations
- Acknowledgements
- Appendix








