Incorporating Underreported Crime Into Police Performance Measurement

• In Event: New Directions in Policing Research

Abstract

Each year in the United States, a large portion of crime goes unreported. Victims and witnesses refrain from reporting crimes to the police for a variety of reasons, including fear of retaliation, perceptions that nothing can be done to help their situation, and/or not wanting the offender to be punished. In effect, police departments that rely on administrative, arrests and complaints-based data to guide strategy, deployment, and staffing decisions likely have a restricted view of crime, thus impeding their ability to effectively prevent and solve it. It is imperative that we find an effective way to elicit and measure a broad range of residents’ voices, and cohesively incorporate them into police problem-solving processes. An approach including a cluster sample of community members is expected to provide an overall picture of victimization, perceptions of safety, and police satisfaction, which could help to better define unreported crime. This type of data stands to fill gaps in the majority of current police performance measurements, thus better equipping departments with the knowledge necessary to successfully promote public safety.

Authors

• Megan J O'Toole, Vera Institute of Justice

• S. Rebecca Neusteter, Vera Institute of Justice