Citation

Zaykowski H. Crime Delinq. 2015; 61(2): 271-296.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0011128711398022

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research consistently demonstrates that severity, often measured by victim injury, is the most influential factor to predict reporting crimes to the police. However, less is known with regard to how the victim's perception of the incident or their involvement in offending behavior inhibits this decision. The current study examines how traditional indicators (i.e., victim, offender and incident characteristics), the victim's offending behavior, and perceptual measures influence police awareness of criminal victimization.

RESULTS suggest that victim injury and offending status does not significantly predict police awareness when subjective measures are controlled. However, multiple offenders, community crime, and parental knowledge significantly increased the odds that the police were aware that the victimization occurred.

Language: en