NCJ Number
152486
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 21 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1994) Pages: 423-442
Date Published
1994
Length
20 pages
Annotation
There is consistent evidence from a variety of sources that crime victims' reporting decisions are influenced by others; the two studies reported in this article extend this prior work by surveying two statewide stratified random samples (817 and 832 subjects).
Abstract
The first study used a telephone survey to investigate social influence on victims by asking about actual victimization and presenting respondents with simulated situations. The second study was conducted to replicate and extend the findings from the first study regarding the effects for victim-offender relationship and gender of respondent. Also, the study was designed to test whether the gender of the victim was a significant determinant of reporting advice. In study one, of 148 respondents who said a family member had been a victim of sexual assault, domestic assault, or robbery, only 65 percent said that they had advised the victims to report the crime, and women were significantly more likely to advise reporting domestic assault than were men. In both study one and study two, respondents were asked about the appropriateness of reporting specific crimes to the police. Based on both within-respondent and between- respondent questions, apparently reporting advice was contingent on several factors: the seriousness of the offense, the gender of the victim, the victim-offender relationship, and the gender of the respondent. 3 tables and 23 references