Hispanic community in the United States of America is notorious for crime underreporting, although the practice suggests that crime incidence among this segment of the population is one of the highest nationwide. The causes of particular crime predilection to crime among the United States inhabitants of Latino origin received profound scholarly attention of the American academic community, yet the causes of unwillingness to report crime to the authorities remain vague.
Comparative analysis with other major cultural groups of the United States seems to be a sound strategy in this regard. Thus, among the most popular causes of latent crime in the USA the researchers cite fear of retaliation, apprehensions of not being trusted by the authorities because of the victims’ social backgrounds and strong social prejudice that the law enforcement authorities will not be capable of doing anything to prevent future crimes in the Hispanic neighborhoods. Statistically, 80% of all crimes perpetrated in the Hispanic neighborhoods go unreported to the authorities, comprising one of the most egregious statistics nationwide (Siegel, 2015).
Thus, in order to reduce the number of unreported crime, it is evident that the legal system requires fundamental reformations. The first step in this regard is to ensure that the law enforcement agencies will be duly reacting to the complaints. Secondly, the severity of pre-trial detention should be intensified when to alleviate victim’s misgivings about potential retaliation from the perpetrator.
Implementing these measures is impossible without a comprehensive media coverage. Therefore, in order to reduce the percentage of latent crime among Latin Americans, the law enforcement authorities should launch a big media campaign, explaining that not only their safety is guaranteed by the state, but also that all guilty persons will be ultimately brought to liability.
References
Siegel, L. (2015). Criminology: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies. Cengage Learning
