This document is for anyone in year 12 - criminology unit 1 AC1.2 (EXAM BOARD - WJEC). This essay clearly describes the different reasons for crime going unreported, ranging from personal to cultural reasons. Also includes relevant links to scenarios.
Unit 1 – why crimes go unreported
AC1.2
There could be many reasons why crimes can go unreported. There could be personal reasons or
social and cultural reasons.
Personal reasons: fear, shame and not being affected
Social and cultural reasons: culture bound crime, lack of knowledge and lack of concern
Personal reasons:
Fear:
Fear is one of the most common reason as to why crimes go unreported. Offenders most of
the time try to scare victims into not speaking up for themselves so that they don’t get
caught. Also the victims tend to be someone that is more vulnerable and therefore is less
likely to say anything. For example, for hate crime, if someone is bullied for being
homosexual, the victim would rather be quiet about the situation mostly because they don’t
want to get bullied even more now for the fact that they also told someone about it. In the
case of the scenario, David is the victim of bullying because he is homosexual. We can tell
that David hasn’t done anything about the problem as the bullying has continued and we
aren’t told if anyone has tried to do something about it. Other crimes such as honour crime
could also not be reported because of this reason as the victim might think the family could
find out about the accusations and worst things could happen.
Shame:
When a victim feels ashamed of what has happened they will much rather just keep the
issue to themselves. Perhaps the victim cares about the opinion of others and perhaps are
scared that if they report the crime to the police their family and friends will find out. For
example, domestic violence against a man. The man could feel ashamed that the woman is
abusing him as the society tells men that they should be the superior ones and when
something happens and it goes against that rule of society the man will most likely feel
ashamed. Another crime that could not be reported because of shame could be white collar
crime. Victims might feel ashamed that they allowed people to “fool” them.
Not being affected:
People who witness a crime taking place might not thing it’s something that personally
affects them. Usually this happens with smaller crimes such as moral crimes and some
technological or white collar crimes. This can lead to such crimes being unreported as
individuals think it is not their place to get involved or it’s none of their business. those
individuals will leave those crimes to be reported by other people who might feel more
affected by the crime. For example, if they see a homeless person sleeping on the streets
they will know that the homeless person isn’t doing any harm to them so they will just let
others to report it.
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