BJS Stats on Domestic Violence

Via Empirical Legal Studies, I see that the Bureau of Justice Statistics has released a report concerning domestic violence prosecution and punishment. Among the many notable findings is this tidbit:

Prosecuted domestic sexual assault defendants had a higher overall conviction rate (98%) than prosecuted non-domestic sexual assault defendants (87%).

While this discrepancy might appear significant, alone it doesn't provide much information. Prosecuted cases are a non-random sample of the overall pool of reported cases. So many cases are never prosecuted or result in a plea deal. Still, of those that go to trial it is interesting to see that domestic partner defendants are convicted at a higher rate. It is certainly a sea change from the days of the marital rape exception.