This webinar draws on a researcher-practitioner study to explore this gap using data collected from a working LAP program in a rural-classified city. Using ride-alongs, field observations, interviews, police records, lethality assessments, and court outcomes, the session will help rural responders understand why victims may decline the LAP, what refusal means for case outcomes, and how agencies can improve follow-up after the initial call ends. The findings offer an important reminder: when victims decline the assessment or advocate call, it does not mean they are uncooperative, their case is doomed, or the system has nothing left to do. In this study, refusal was not associated with lower rates of charging, conviction, or confinement. At the same time, refusal still tells us something important about timing, trust, trauma, officer framing, documentation, and follow-up. This session is designed to help officers, advocates, prosecutors, supervisors, judges, and coordinated community response teams better understand why victims may say no in the moment and how rural systems can keep high-risk victims visible after everyone leaves the scene.

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