Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ: police procedure

A question for a story I'm thinking of; I'm hoping some of you can help!

If someone went to the police and said, "Such-and-such-person did such-and-such-crime to me" (rape, for example, or something more nebulous like holding them against their will) - realistically , how would the police handle it? Would they go arrest the person based only on the alleged victim's word? Would they just interview the person for an alibi and look for other evidence to substantiate the victim's claim? Any ideas or thoughts on this would be appreciated!

Not being a cop - the police need evidence before they can make an arrest - in the case of a rape, the victim will be examined, even though an examination may not be able to prove a rape occurred.

On the other hand, the police will look into the matter, interview people who may have information. The statement of one person may not be enough to bring a case, but if that person was missing for several days, knew things about a property that could be confirmed, if there was physical evidence at the location.

CSI etc. have shown the approximate procedure for rape cases several times - medical examination combined with a swab test for sperm, and if it's found DNA typing of the sperm.

Someone claiming to have been kept prisoner would need to describe the circumstances, anything the police might find that would corroborate the story, etc. - for example, if you had been kept in a small room for several days there would probably be all sorts of forensic evidence around such as traces of epithelial cells, hair, saliva etc. If you'd been physically assaulted there might also be blood etc., and there might be e.g. rope or handcuff marks on your arms etc.

Thank you, Dandello and Marcus!

As long as the police can obtain probable cause, they can arrest somebody.

Arresting somebody does not necessarily have anything to do with convicting them of a crime, or holding them indefinitely.

It would also depend on where this alleged offense took place. What country? What state? What city? "Probable cause" in New York City may not be "probable cause" in Dallas and vice-versa. While rape in the US is a violation of state law, kidnapping is a Federal offense. So you'd need to know what agency would handle the investigation. And, as others have already mentioned, is there any physical evidence to corroborate the alleged victim's statement? The more physical evidence, the more likely the local standard of "probable cause" can be met.

This could really go any way you want it to go. And while DNA is a powerful tool in convincing a jury or prosecutor of the guilt or innocence of a suspect, in real life the tests take so long to complete that they're rarely used in the beginning of an investigation, but rather as supporting evidence. CSI and "Bones" and shows like them are idealized presentations of investigations and don't reflect the actual workload or even the work flow of the majority of criminal investigations. A better (but not perfect) TV model might be "Law and Order TOS" (The Original Series), or even "The Closer," although the latter deals with high-profile cases where a large team of investigators attack a single murder case at a time. Real-life cops don't have that luxury.

Doing a "rape kit" exam on an alleged victim, however, would at least establish whether or not the victim was assaulted, even if enough time has passed that the assailant's DNA has been processed out of the victim's system. There would be tell-tale bruising, damaged tissues, patterns of restraint, etc. to indicate something bad had happened.

To answer the orginal question: In my experience, the police often charge people based solely on another person's word.

If you want to hear a horror story or two, send me an email and... be prepared to have it change your view forever of the criminal justice system .

ML