1.3 Explain the consequences of unreported crime
There are many consequences of crimes going unreported. Some consequences of
unreported crime include: the ripple effect, decriminalisation, police prioritisation, unrecorded
crime, cultural change, legal change and procedural change.
Ripple effect
The ripple effect is when unreported cases lead to not only the primary victims being
affected, but secondary victims being affected, such as the community or as society as a
whole. Secondary victims are often not involved with the crime, and are unaware that the
crime is going on until it reaches them, which may be via news, word of mouth, newspaper,
social media, etc. An example of the ripple effect is evident in the case of domestic abuse.
Not only are the primary victims, mostly women, affected by domestic abuse, but also the
secondary victims, likely to be the local communities, affected by the shock of domestic
abuse. Secondary victims may likely be shocked that the crime has been committed. One
negative consequence of the ripple effect is that it may cause a fear amongst the secondary
victims of the case, as they may fear the crime repeating, or happening to themselves.
Another negative consequence of the ripple effect is a lack of trust within the community
being formed, and this may cause secondary victims to be wary of each other, as well as the
police.
Decriminalisation
Decriminalisation is when some crimes go widespread amongst society, even though the law
is still in place. This eventually leads to the decriminalisation of a crime due to many people
committing the crime and its on-going nature amongst society. If the crime that is widespread
keeps on going unreported, it may eventually no longer be seen as a crime and is morally
acceptable within society. An example of this would be that in 1967, two men were legally
allowed to be in a relationship without fear of being arrested. This proved that a crime being
more widespread could lead to the decriminalisation of a crime. A positive consequence of
decriminalisation is the fact that it may lead to some crimes being made legal which are
morally right and benefit a lot of people in society (e.g same sex marriage). However, a
negative consequence of decriminalisation is the fact that some people may not be
supportive of the decriminalisation of a crime, which may lead to rebellion or protests
amongst the community. Another consequence of decriminalisation is that it could lead to the
cirm increasing due to more people doing it (e.g the push to decriminalize the use of
cannabis for medical purposes).
Police prioritisation
Police prioritisation means that the police will give protisies to certain crimes over other
crimes. There are several reasons for this happening. The first reason is a lack of resources
or limited amount of resources, meaning that police units will often have to budget according
to which crimes they will investigate. A second reason is the acknowledgement of the local
population, meaning that some crimes may need to be tackled due to the amount of public
attention they are receiving. A third reason is the media, meaning that police may focus on a
crime which is deemed as new-worthy to draw attention to the crime (e.g the case of Jimmy
Savel). A forth reason is the home office, meaning that there may be certain proirityies which
the home office set for police to investigate (e.g human trafficking). A positive consequence
of police prioritisation is that crimes which follow similar trends or of high rates of offending
