Cases reviewed

The Star Tribune requested, from 20 law enforcement agencies statewide, investigative reports on rapes reported in 2015 and 2016. We have about half the cases we expected and are waiting on the others. Below is a breakdown of the cases we’ve reviewed from Minneapolis, St. Paul and the other agencies, so far.

dept Number_cases
All other 671
Minneapolis 554
St. Paul 240
Total 1465


Analysis results

Percent of cases sent for prosecution



Percent of cases where charges were filed





Percent of cases resulting in conviction

Less than 1 in 10 of the cases we reviewed resulted in conviction.



Case investigations

The charts below look at how often investigators took basic policing steps in the cases we reviewed.


A recommended best practice is for investigators to conduct a more thorough interview after the victim makes an initial report to the officer responding to the initial call.



About 70% of the cases we reviewed listed one or more suspect names in the report, yet investigators failed to interview that person more often than not.



When reviewing cases, we looked for indications of evidence that could’ve been collected but there was no documentation in the report that it was. This might have included DNA, clothing or bed sheets, surveillance video or cell phone data.





Cases not sent for prosecution

The Star Tribune wanted to understand what went wrong with the 3 out of 4 cases that were never sent to prosecutors. Looking at just those cases, we found police were even less likely to take the most basic investigatory steps.










Victim involvement

About one-third of victims either choose to no longer cooperate in an investigation or police are unable to reach them later in the investigation.




When a victim stays involved in the investigation, the case is far more likely to be sent to prosecutors.



And we’ve only found 1 case that resulted in a conviction after the victim dropped out.