Reporting Violent Acts to the Police: A Difference by Race

• NCJ Number: 196232
• Journal: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Volume: 25 Issue: 2 Dated: 2002 Pages: 274-293
• Author(s): Robert T. Sigler; Ida M. Johnson
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

As part of a broader U.S. longitudinal study that examined public willingness to define specific acts of force as wrong and willingness to report these same acts to the police, this study examined whether race influenced willingness to report acts of violence to police.

Abstract

Data were collected with four self-administered questionnaires that were delivered and retrieved from randomly selected households within the city limits of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The four surveys shared a common sampling frame, common variables, and common data collection techniques. Data were collected in 1986-87, 1991-92, and in 1996-97. The first instrument focused on the location of domestic violence within the broader context of social violence; the second, third, and fourth instruments focused on the dimensions of domestic abuse and perceived need for criminalization for specific types of domestic abuse. The current study focused on data collected with the first instrument and the extent to which willingness to identify acts as violent and willingness to report acts to the police varied by race. In the first survey, 121 questionnaires were returned from the 150 questionnaires distributed. The data indicate that respondents had a relatively low tolerance for violence. The use of physical force in almost all situations was viewed as always wrong by a substantial number of the subjects, with the tolerance levels decreasing in the 10-year period from 1986-87 to 1996-97. Willingness to report the acts to the police was substantial in 1986-87, but, while still substantial, has declined in the intervening years. Particularly troubling is the difference by race that emerged in the 1996-97 data. Data indicate that minority subjects were less willing to report to police acts of violence that they believed to be wrong. The study continues, and the researchers recommend using data analysis for the development of a fully articulated model regarding decreasing confidence in the police by the minority community. 8 tables, 34 references, and appended list of acts of violence included in the survey