Prior Police Contact and Subsequent Victim Reporting: Results From the NCVS

• NCJ Number: 216480
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 23 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 481-501
• Author(s): Min Xie; Greg Pogarsky; James P. Lynch; David McDowall
• Date Published: December 2006
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) from 1998-2000, this study examined the link between a victim's crime reporting and the police response to the victim's prior victimizations, as well as those of the victim's household members.

Abstract

This study found that police investigative efforts in regarding a previous victimization influenced whether the respondent reported a subsequent victimization; however, whether or not the police made an arrest in the prior victimization did not affect subsequent crime reporting. A positive police response to an individual's own prior victimization experience encouraged the victim to report future victimizations most often when the victim himself/herself reported the prior victimization, rather than someone else. Victim reporting was unaffected by the police response to the victimization of another household members. This was true even in cases in which the victim and household member were victimized by similar types of crime. This finding confirms previous research that has found direct experiences to have a greater impact on attitudes and behavior than indirect experiences. The longitudinal data (1998-2000) from the NCVS involved a stratified multistage cluster survey with a rotating panel design of approximately 50,000 housing units. Each member of each sampled household who was age 12 or older was interviewed up to seven times at 6-month intervals. In each interview, respondents provided information on victimizations to themselves and/or other household members that occurred within 6 months preceding the interview. The dependent variable was whether or not the victim reported the most recent victimization to the police. This occurred in 41 percent of cases among individuals with prior person victimization and 29 percent of cases among individuals with prior household victimization. The primary independent variables pertained to the police response to prior personal and household victimizations. 3 tables, 2 figures, 43 references, and appended description and summary statistics for study variables