NCJ Number
210747
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 42 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2005 Pages: 333-353
Date Published
August 2005
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study examined the disparity in police reporting between adult and juvenile victims.
Abstract
While it is known that crimes committed against adults are more likely to be reported to police than crimes committed against juvenile victims, researchers have thus far failed to examine this variation in police reporting behavior. The current study investigated three main questions: (1) do individual, incident, and situational variables explain the disparity in police reporting between juvenile and adult victims; (2) does distinguishing crimes reported to nonpolice authorities mediate the disparity in police reporting between juvenile and adult victims; and (3) are individual and situational variables related to police reporting also related to nonpolice reporting? Data on 15,608 assaults and robberies were drawn from the 1994 through 2001 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS); variables under examination included reporting to police, household-level data such as education level and income, crime seriousness, and situational variables. Results of binomial and multiple regression analyses indicated that the relationship between juvenile victimization and police reporting could not be explained by individual, incident, or situational variables after controlling for both juvenile offenders and school victimization. Crime seriousness also had no effect on juvenile reporting behavior. One potential avenue for future research that was not tested in this study is the potential mediating factor of perceived seriousness of the crime on the part of juvenile victims. Tables, notes, references