NCJ Number
180336
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: December 1999 Pages: 765-792
Editor(s)
Finn-Aage Esbensen
Date Published
1999
Length
28 pages
Annotation
Using 1992-1994 data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), this study tested Donald Black's theory about the behavior of law, specifically the decision to mobilize social control through legal agencies.
Abstract
Selected survey respondents (2,203 of 48,114 NCVS respondents) were those selected who reported they had been victims of rape, attempted rape, other sexual assault, or aggravated assault at the hands of people they knew. All study variables were derived from the relevant NCVS questions, and logistic regression model estimation procedures were employed to assess multivariate effects of these variables on the probability that a victim called the police and on the probability that the police arrested a suspect. Results suggested that extralegal factors such as race, gender, wealth, and education affected victim decisions to call for police intervention and police decisions to arrest. In addition, factors predicting calls to police appeared to be different from those predicting arrest. Poor individuals relied on the police more than middle class individuals, and women used the law more often than men. The degree of social control, or the "quantity of law" mobilized theory of Black, was not explained by many factors the theory predicted. Implications of the findings are discussed with respect to social change and the need to revise theory. 60 references and 3 tables