The Impact of Community Context and Racial/Ethnic Dyads on Reporting Assault to Police

• In Event: Factors Impacting the Reporting Victimization to Officials and their Outcomes

Abstract

Donald Black (1976) described the importance of a victim’s decision to contact the police as a “human mechanism by which legal services are routed into situations where there is a felt need for law.” The function of the criminal justice system is threatened when offenders are not arrested due to the non-reporting of crime. This “dark figure of crime” limits the understanding of how crime affects individuals and communities. The purpose of the current study is to explore how contextual factors influence racial and ethnic differences in the reporting of intimate partner violence to the police. Using data from the Violence and Threats of Violence Against Women and Men in the United States Survey along with the U.S. Census, this research specifically examines whether the effects of racial and ethnic dyads on the reporting of intimate partner violence to the police varies across geographical contexts.

Author

• Jordyn Rosario, Florida State University