Rihanna and Chris Brown: Does a reunion mean case closed?

In the monthlong media blitz following 21-year-old pop star Rihanna's alleged Feb. 8 beating by her 19-year-old R&B beau Chris Brown, the duo's case has certainly been tried in the court of public opinion. But according to the latest news, the charges have yet to reach the bench. Will they ever, what with recent reports that the onetime lovebirds are back together?

After being spotted at one of Sean "Diddy" Combs' homes on Miami Beach's Star ­Island -- Brown was repeatedly photographed; Rihanna was not -- the duo flew back on March 2 to L.A., where Brown had been scheduled to appear at an arraignment three days later. When contacted on March 3, however, the Los Angeles Police Department said that the case was still under investigation and had not yet been moved to the district attorney's office -- a necessary step for arraignment.

What isn't necessary to press charges in cases of domestic violence: the victim's cooperation. According to Nancy Lemon, the director of the UC Berkeley School of Law's Domestic Violence Law Practicum, it's "extremely typical" for domestic violence victims to opt out of testifying against their abusers, and Lemon says there is at least one academic study that indicates that conviction rates actually go up when the victim does not appear in court. "Probably 80 percent of the time in the United States, domestic violence victims either don't testify at all, or if they do testify, they may testify for the defense," says Lemon, who emphasized that she was speaking generally and was not familiar with the details of Brown's alleged crime.

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