subscribe: Posts | Comments

Source Based Essay

Why are Crimes Underreported

There are many criminal activities that occur in the United States, and about 40% of those crimes are unreported to the police. This disables the government from monitoring the distribution of victims and bring multiple consequences: the victims don’t avenge for the sake of their mental health, and police action is limited, thus leading to more crime. Moreover, which crimes are unreported? What are the psychological dynamics for this phenomenon; a question the following sources touch on.

Why Do Victims Not Report?: The Influence of Police and Criminal Justice Cynicism on the Dark Figure of Crime

            Reporting is considered an important aspect in the criminal justice process, and most psychologists study the macro social characteristics of why crimes are underreported. The purpose of the study is to show that criminologists are not looking at the larger picture to why these individuals decided to keep on themselves, which could be a hindrance to researchers making new discoveries. The author argues that most studies” should focus on [the] micro characteristics… such as victim, offender and crime characteristic” (Yoon, 2015). This specific study is concentrated around “cynicism;” mistrust in the police, bringing a new focal point to these studies and possibly promoting further research.

            The audience are individuals with high educational background such as researchers. This is relevant as the author constantly mentions other experts in the field such as “criminologists and scholars,” that are key influencers to the study (Yoon, 2015). Also, the language and writing style is academic, complex, formal, objective and explicit. The main point is understanding the “effect of legal cynicism,” the word which means untrust is not familiar with common individuals and only those of higher educational backgrounds and expertise would understand (Yoon, 2015). In addition, the study mentions “bivariate correlations;” a statistical technique that is used to determine the existence of relationships between two different variables (Yoon, 2015). The term seems familiar after reading the definition but it’s not used in casual terminology further proving that the piece is written by experts for experts.

            Like most studies, the tone is dull and academic; it’s restricted from subjectivity or showing any sort of emotion about the topic. However, it uses some argumentative tone as the author claims that there is “a lack of  permanent variables and methodological limitation.” (Yoon, 2015). Since she is mentioning points that are not considered in most studies regarding unreported crimes, the author is subjective to disagreements from other scholars. It is a formal study conducted to understand the effect of one variable on another however, the author’s bias is prevalent throughout the journal. .

            The conductor in this study holds a stance different from other research which is by understanding the macro dynamics of underreported crimes. As the author states, the study aims to “empirically test the relationship between cynicism and reporting” (Yoon, 2015). While other researchers mostly focused on “reporting” as an important aspect in the criminal justice process without understanding the influence behind it (Yoon, 2015).

Vast majority of violent crime goes unreported in metro Atlanta: Hospital study

            The purpose of the new article is to inform the public of a resolution to unreported crimes. Ford Vox stated that despite the community meetings the police hold, they “can’t expect some of the people… to show up and speak out.” (Ford Vox, 2018) Thus, stating that no matter how much the police advocate for reporting of crimes, little advancement is occuring. Therefore, the police redirected their focus into emergency rooms, asking patients when and where incidents occurred, they can create “spatiotemporal crime maps.” (Ford Vox, 2018) This helps them understand where crime is most prevalent  and create an optimized approach to minimize criminal activity.

            The audience are public individuals that are familiar to the underreported crime phenomenon. The author begins the news article stating that, “the vast majority of violent crimes in sampled areas of metro Atlanta go unreported to police” (Vox, 2018). He doesn’t provide much background on the topic and rather jumps in to explaining the measures of the police force to help counter it explaining that “emergency rooms… create anonymized spatio temporal crime maps.” (Vox, 2018). They create these maps by questioning the victims on where incidents occurred, through hospital staff. They don’t ask the victims themselves as they don’t want to raise terror or mistrust in the police. Moreover, this technique could serve scholars and criminalists by proposing a possible study; to what extent is the emergency room method successful.

            The tone of the news article is formal and journalistic. Since the author’s purpose isn’t  to persuade, the tone doesn’t sound persuasive or biased. It rather provides the audience with the new police measures and their statistical results. For instance, he mentions that similar measures conducted by police in the UK show that “ violent altercation causing wound [reduced] by 42 percent.” (Vox, 2018) However, he doesn’t include his intake on any of the decisions made by the police force.

            The author takes the position/ stance of an outsider looking. By just providing new information to the public, he is restricting himself from bias and doens;t include his opinion in any part of the news article. He wants the audience to get an objective view of the emergency room method by the police force.

Victimizations Not Reported to the Police, 2006-2010

            The purpose of the national crime victimization Survey is to statistically report the reason to why violent victimizations were not reported to the police between 2006- 2010. This way people can examine the trends in “the types of crimes not reported to police, the characteristics of unreported victimization, and the victim’s rationale for not reporting these crimes.” (Langton, Berzofsky,  Krebs, and McDonald, 2012) Therefore, understanding the factors presented will help in creating psychological solutions to the phenomenon.

            The audience for this report are individuals that are interested in the psychological influence of unreported crime, including scholars and criminalists. It is not made for the public as it explicitly states the results of the survey without worrying on attracting a large audience.

            Lynn Langton, the survey’s conductor reports the results and a formal and explicit tone. She disclosed her bias from the results, by only including statistical information such as, “52% of all violent crimes… were not reported to the police” (Langton, Berzofsky, Krebs, and McDonald, 2012). However, she doesn’t mention her opinion on the facts presented but rather brings a report to why these victims don’t report. The tone is also objective as she doesn’t try to persuade the audience of thinking a certain way about the results, she leaves them to conclude their own opinions on the matter.

            The author has the objective stance of providing possible influences to unreported crimes. She doesn’t attempt to persuade the audience to have a certain opinion on the data presented but hopes that it will promote further research to identify “ the gaps in the provision of criminal justice,” and “examine trends” in the crimes  (Langton, Berzofsky, Krebs, and McDonald, 2012).

Why crimes aren’t reported: The role of emotional distress and perceptions of police response

            The purpose is to inform and persuade the public of the relationship of victim’s emotion and whether they report crimes to the police. “Existing research highlights the impact of victims’ individual level characteristics… and also points to the influence of varying degrees of harm.” (Posick and Singleton, 2014) The authors, Chad Posick and Michael Singleton, argue that different backgrounds lead to varying perception on how effective and trustworthy police force is which point out the ones that believe in the police enough to report these crimes. They’re also calling for more action from police forces to use the research findings to “take clear-cut steps to enhance citizen confidence and reassure crime victims. (Posick and Singleton, 2014)

            The research paper is gravitate towards scholars and individuals that are familiar with the topic. They are under the, “Scholars Strategy Network,” and start of the paper by stating that, “as is well known, many crimes are not reported to the police.” (Posick and Singleton, 2014) This part excludes any person that is not familiar with this occurrence, and implying that any person reading the research is well informed about the issue.

            The tone of the research paper is mainly formal and educational, and somewhat uplifting. The paper does mention the results of the research and discusses a conclusion to their results. However, they also create possible solution to the issue of unreported crimes. Since there is a possibility that the victim’s emotions are correlated with the number of reported crimes, the police have a starting point in tackling the situation. “Departments can establish ongoing programs to engage the community.” Also, “Police training can promote emotionally intelligent responses to crime victims.”(Posick and Singleton, 2014)

            The authors take a stance in relating emotions about the police can reflect on whether victims trust the police and report the crimes. They also use their results to create solutions to the issue by promoting more involvement of the police force in the public.

Similarities Between the Sources.

            All the articles serve a purpose of informing the public/ scholars about the advancement of research about unreported crimes. They are all reported by individuals that are major contributors to the medical fields and write their papers for other experts in the field or people that are familiar with the issue. Therefore, for the most part, they used formal and objective language with minimal biases.

            The journalistic article Why crimes aren’t reported: The role of emotional distress and perceptions of police response and Why Do Victims Not Report?: The Influence of Police and Criminal Justice Cynicism on the Dark Figure of Crime, both focus on the influence of emotion on the victim’s tendency to report a crime. They both mention that past affiliation with the police can cause mistrust in how extensive the police are in responding to these incidents and thus choose not to resort to the police to solve the crime. They also contribute to understanding the occurrence from a broader stance rather than focusing on micro dynamics that go into it.

Although each source had a different genre and focused on one factor of why crimes are unreported, they all focus on the psychological reasoning behind it. They all come to the point that the victims either mistrust the police due to past incidents, or because they don’t believe that they’ll be rightfully avenged. Nonetheless, the author had a similar stance which is how the police should be involved rather than what’s going on with the victims, which concludes that more research is highly needed to solve this issue.

Works Cited

Langston, Lynnl. “Victimizations Not Reported to the Police, 2006-2010”. Survey. Aug. 2012

Posick, Chad, and Michael Singleton. “Why Crimes Aren’t reported: The Role of Emotional Distress and Perceptions of Police Response .” Journalist’s Resource [Scholars Strategy Network], 13 May 2014. Newspaper Source. Accessed 10 September 2019 https://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/criminal-justice/crime-unreporting-emotional-distress-police-response/.

Vox, Ford. “Vast Majority of Violent Crime Goes Unreported in Metro Atlanta: Hospital Study.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 12 Nov. 2018, Newspaper Source. Accessed 10 September 2019. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/vast-majority-violent-crime-unreported-metro-atlanta-hospital/story?id=59123632.

Yoon, Seokhee. “Why Do Victims Not Report?: The Influence of Police and Criminal Justice Cynicism on the Dark Figure of Crime.” May 2015, pp. 1–92. City University of New York,  CUNY Academic Works.

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2209&context=gc_etds

Skip to toolbar