In a study published in the 2011 issue of Violence and Victims, entitled “In Vino Silentum? Individual, situational, and alcohol-related factors in reporting violence to the police”, University of Hull researcher Iain Brennan investigation the factors that encourage or discourage a person from reporting that they have been the victim of crime and the effects of non-reporting on proactive community policy, which relies heavily of crime records in order to be effective.
I. Research Focus
According to Brennan, crime records are fundamental basis for any effective proactive community policing policy. Crime records, Brennan argues, provide the data necessary for proactive community policing to make use of the scanning, analysis, response, assessment model that allows police to: (1) determine where criminal activity is likely to occur, and (2) deploy the appropriate mix of patrols and police-community engagement strategies to target areas to deter crime. In essence, the more crime records; the more data for analysis. The likely result being a more accurate the analysis. The issue with crime records, for Brennan however, is that they are not produced on their own. A lack of crime data will adversely affect the effectiveness of proactive community policing. To be sure, people need to report crimes, especially when they are the victims, to produce the crime records that are used to make proactive community policing effective.
As a result, the focus of Brennan’s research is to determine what factor lead a person to report a crime when they themselves are the victim. Brennan starts with the thesis that, while one might intuitively think that being victim of a crime would necessarily lead one to report it to the police, that is not necessarily the case. A range of other factors, such as a negative experience with police, personal attitudes towards police, sociodemographic characteristics, the type of crime, whether weapons were used, the gender of the victim, and a number of other elements all might play a role in whether or not a victim would report a crime. Accordingly, Brennan choose to analyze whether these factors play a role in crime reporting. Of all the factors, Brennan chose to emphasize reporting in alcohol related crimes (either the victim was drinking, the perpetrator was drinking, or both were drinking) because alcohol related crimes because historically alcohol has been one of the major causes of “interpersonal violence” (Brennan, 2011).
II. Research Findings
As theorized, Brennan’s research found that there are a wide number of influences on whether a person will report a crime. For example, women are more likely to report crimes than men; as are senior citizens as compared to young adults and teenagers. But one interesting finding that Brennan made that is significant for proactive community policing is that victims are less likely to report crimes in those situations where criminal behavior more commonly occurs. For example, victims are less likely to report being a victim of crime at as sporting event after drinking, or at a bar during or after drinking. Moreover, the more drinks a victim has the less likely they are to report a crime.
III. Research Applications
The applications of the findings are that crime records for situations where crimes are most likely to happen are most likely underreported. Accordingly, for proactive community policing of these situations is to be more effective steps should be taken to obtain more accurate records in those instances.
References
Brennan, I.R. (2011). In Vino Silentum? Individual, situational, and alcohol-related factors in reporting violence to the police. Violence and Victims, 26 (2): 191-207.
