Evaluating the impact of victim-centric, trauma-informed training on sexual violence case outcomes: a quasi-experimental study of a program for police investigators

Abstract Research question Did specialist investigators trained in advanced trauma informed practices within the two-week Queensland Police Service (QPS) Investigating Sexual Assault, Corroborating and Understanding Relationship Evidence (ISACURE) course solve more sexual offence cases and have fewer withdrawn, unfounded and unsolved sexual offence cases than control investigators who had not received the ISACURE training? Were the training impacts short-lived or sustained? Data and methods This paper explores whether advanced specialist sexual offence training within the ISACURE course resulted in quantifiable changes in investigative practice. We compared official case outcomes (cases solved, withdrawn and unfounded) of 227 ISACURE course participants with an equivalent sample (gender, age, length of service, role, sexual offence case load) of 125 investigators across a four-year period to explore training impacts and whether these were short lived or sustained. Results ISACURE investigators had a significantly (14.8%, p = .044) higher average solve rate for rape/attempted rape and significantly (14.4%, p = .002) higher solve rate for other sexual offence types compared to the comparison group. Additionally, ISACURE investigators had a significantly (14.0%, p = .015) lower rate of victim withdrawal and 6.8% lower rate of unfounded cases following completion of the ISACURE course compared to the control group. One of the most significant findings was the enduring impact of the ISACURE course. Investigators who undertook the training continued to solve serious sexual offence cases at statistically significantly higher levels than the control group up to four years following training. Solve rates for ISACURE investigators increased by 7.1% whereas the rate for control investigators declined by 16.9% across the same period ( p = .002). Conclusion This research demonstrates that trauma-informed training can improve investigative outcomes in the short and long term and lead to more solved cases. The paper also explicates how police organisations can measure the impact of their training investment by comparatively tracking training outcomes over time.