When failure is the option: Unravelling sexual assault outcomes

Abstract

We investigate the concept of “criminal failure” in sexual crimes and the relevance of various theoretical frameworks for its understanding: individual offender's rational choice, environmental influences and routine activities, victimological characteristics from lifestyle theory, and crime interaction factors. We examined a sample of 1121 “failed” cases (i.e., attempted but not completed) and 1500 “successful” cases (i.e., completed) of sexual assault that occurred in France between 1990 and 2018. We used 32 predictors that mapped on the four theoretical frameworks and conducted bivariate followed by multivariate analyses. Multiple theoretical frameworks are relevant to understand criminal failure, which is a product of perpetrator, environmental, victimological, and interactional factors. Two distinct patterns are specifically associated with failure: lack of preparation and lack of social skills. In addition, failure was best understood not as a unitary concept, but as multifactorial by distinguishing between different types of failure, specifically: offender intentionally released the victim before completion, victim escaped or third party rescue. Finally, patterns of failure were different in sexual crimes against children compared to those against adults. Criminology should pay closer attention to failure in crime. This understudied area can yield important theoretical knowledge and practical implications regarding the prevention of sexual crimes.