Original Release Date: September 17, 2021
In episode ten of our 2021 Research and Considerations for Sexual Assault Cases season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Rachel Lovell, researcher and professor at Cleveland State University, and Mary Weston, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney and Director of the Cold Case Unit at the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, to discuss the complexities surrounding crossover offending in sexual assault cases.
Do serial rapists have a consistent modus operandi? According to Dr. Lovell’s research and Mary Weston’s experience as a prosecutor, serial offenders rarely stick to a script, making it harder to bring them to justice. Listen along as our guests use their research and experience in the courtroom to demystify crossover offending and provide strategies to better investigate and prosecute sexual assault cases involving serial offenders in this episode of Just Science.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
Some content in this podcast may be considered sensitive and may evoke emotional responses, or may not be appropriate for younger audiences.
View or download the episode transcript here:
Transcript
Guest Biography
Dr. Rachel Lovell is a Research Assistant Professor at the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a sociologist and methodologist whose research focuses on gender-based violence and victimization—particularly sexual assault, human trafficking, and intimate partner violence. With funding provided by the Bureau of Justice Assistance's National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, Dr. Lovell is currently directing large action research projects on untested sexual assault kits in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (in collaboration with the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force) and Akron, Ohio (in partnership with the Akron Police Department). Dr. Lovell is also the Principal Investigator on a National Institute of Justice grant to employ machine learning technology to analyze the narratives of thousands of sexual assault police reports for "signaling" language regarding victims' credibility.
Mary Weston is the Supervisor of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office’s Cold Case/GOLD Unit. The Cold Case/Gold Unit focuses on (a) reviewing cold case sexual assaults and homicides for new leads, including the applicability of advanced DNA methodologies; and (b) the collection of Lawfully Owed DNA. Mary has been an assistant prosecuting attorney since 2006 and joined the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Taskforce when it was formed in 2013. Currently, she is the Project Manager for the Taskforce, overseeing all aspects of cold case sexual assault and homicide investigations, making charging decisions, presenting cases to the grand jury, and litigating cases in court and on appeal.
The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this podcast episode are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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