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Above is my Unit One Criminology Results (100/100)
AC 1.2 - Explain the reasons that certain crimes are unreported.
Reasons for unreported crime
Personal Reasons
Fear
Why is Domestic Abuse not reported
In many cases, victims are afraid to speak up. This can be due to coercion, monetary, physical
or verbal threats compromising the victims’ or witnesses' safety. The most common example of
fear regarding unreported crime is sexual or domestic abuse cases. In both of these cases there
are fears of repercussion which leads to victim silencing. Many cases of abuse are left
unreported as this would pose a greater threat to the person(s) and any childrens livelihoods
supposing, as with many cases previous, there is not enough evidence to convict the abuser.
The freedom of the abuser may lead them to act out more violently if the victim(s) seek help, if
the perpetrator is left free, this can be as extreme as murder. Often, fear leads the victim to
postpone psychological trauma as their bodies must keep fighting, it’s most commonly the case
the trauma does not sink in until after the relationships’ end. There is fear of repercussion and
fear of consequence. Consequences may include CPS being involved, trauma passed onto
children, court, etc. Repercussions may include the offender not being arrested and abuse
worsening, lack of financial support, etc. Less than 24% of domestic abuse is reported to the
police.
Shame
Victims may be ashamed to have been part of the crime and feel as though their reputation will
be compromised. Victims of cyberattacks may feel shame. One example of this is older people
who will be reluctant to own up to being a victim to cyberattacks as they may assume younger
people will ridicule them for their vulnerability online so feel as though they cannot seek legal
advice or speak out. Another example of shame regarding cyberattacks may be the upper
classes. Members of the upper classes may be reluctant to open up about being scammed
within their businesses or being a victim as this makes them appear weaker and puts a dent in
their social superiority, so they leave the crime unreported as they can both afford the loss for
the most part, and at the expense of their notoriety. Shame can lead the victim into a state of
, hysteria whereby victims begin to believe the crime was merely an exaggeration in their head
and no criminal offences were committed; denial. Shame causes victims not to speak out as
they feel no one will understand them, even if the law will be in favour of them. Shame is often
driven by public perceptions of crime which are influenced by the media. Wider societies can
suppress or normalise crimes to the point victims of such feel sheepish around speaking out.
One example of this is discussions regarding rape. Overtime, men have created excuses
around raping based on the women’s ‘situation’. To elaborate, men will eradicate any belief of
guilt around a rapist if the woman was wearing ‘revealing clothes’, chose to walk home at night
alone, was drinking a drink that had been spiked, but it was ‘her choice to get drunk in the first
place’, even as far as implying she wanted sexual intercourse, but vilifying the women when she
changes her mind and says no, for ‘leading him on’, yet the man fulfils his sexual desires
anyway. Hence, a woman who may fall or believe herself to fall into these subcategories and
believing what society deem on her (that she ‘put herself in that position’ in some way shape or
form). In correlation to hate crimes, this can be seen in school or working environments, a lot of
discrimination can be seen and generalised. One example of this is homophobia. If an individual
experiences homophobia they may experience shame as they recognise they are a
marginalised group so feel like they are the problem.
Disinterest
It may not harm the victim or witness enough to speak up about. Most commonly, disinterest
appears through normalised crime or crimes falling under small track claims (below £10,000).
One example of disinterest comes from police prioritisation, this may occur in situations like
having a car stolen or damaged. Due to police’s common disinterest, this may lead to the victim
not reporting the crime. Another example of disinterest may be due to the general public
perception of the crime. The public perception of certain crimes such as vandalism may
undermine it, meaning the ‘victims’ (being the community) of that crime will choose to not care
as it may not be on their personal property or be deemed ‘their problem’ directly, so choose not
to act on it.
Not affected
For example, graffiti may be affecting someone’s environment or personal property. However,
they may not feel strongly enough about the issue to bother reporting it. Or, someone may not
be personally affected by a crime, such as vagrancy, or burglary towards somebody else, as this
was not a direct attack on them and do not know the situation of the perpetrator and victim.
Victimless Crime
Personal drug use is an example of a victimless crime, as they are both the victim and offender.
Victimless crimes go unreported as there is often addiction intertwined making it hard to seek
help. The victim is also aware turning themselves in will lead to prosecution. Some victims may
hide the crime as they themself may count as an offender. Some of these perpetrators also
counting as victims (for example, someone intertwined in drug dealing by a lead gang member)
may wish to keep the crime quiet as they have family life to attend to and don’t wish to be
absent in their children’s lives by being sentenced or bring about a stigmatism to the families’
name. Criminal records may also cause disputes such as divorce and lead to a broken family.
Therefore, the mental impact would be greater if the crime were reported than if it were kept
