Reporting of crime to the police in the Federal Republic of Germany: A comparison of the old and the new lands

Understanding differences in crime reporting practices: a comparative approach

“…When research is conducted outside the United States, it is typically focused on fellow industrialized nation and suggests that reporting practices are similar across different nations. Indeed, studies conducted in the United Kingdom (Bowles et al, 2009;Bradford & Jackson, 2010;MacDonald, 2001), Germany (Kury, 1991;Kury et al, 1999;Teske & Arnold, 1991), the Netherlands (Goudriaan et al, 2006;van Dijk & Steinmetz, 1980), Japan (Kuehne & Miyazawa, 1979), Australia (Castles, 1986), Sweden (Dahlbäck, 2012), Finland (Kääriäinen & Sirén, 2011), and Greece (Antonopoulos, 2006) agree with US-based research: incident characteristics reflecting that the seriousness of the crime is the primary influence in the decision to report to the police.…”

“…Research on the effect of education on reporting practices also yields mixed findings (Bennett & Wiegand, 1994;Gottfredson & Hindelang, 1979;Kury, Würger, & Teske, 1999;Schnebly, 2008;Sunshine & Tyler, 2003;Tolsma et al, 2012). Theses mixed findings are most likely due to the inconsistency in the operationalization of education as a variable.…”

“…Theses mixed findings are most likely due to the inconsistency in the operationalization of education as a variable. Although most studies measure the level of education achieved using a categorical variable (Bennett & Wiegand, 1994;Gottfredson & Hindelang, 1979;Goudriaan, Wittebrood, & Nieuwbeerta, 2006;Kury et al, 1999;Tyler & Melander, 2009;Xie et al, 2006), the number of categories varies from study to study. Different categorical thresholds allow some studies to highlight differences in reporting among various age groups, while others are unable to do so.…”

Reporting to the police in western nations: A theoretical analysis of the effects of social context

“…It is often believed that this cost-benefit calculus is effectively determined by the durable harms to the victim resulting from a crime (Gottfredson & Hindelang, 1979;Kury, Teske, & Wiirger, 1999;Skogan, 1976Skogan, , 1984Sparks, Genn, & Dodd, 1977). If a victim is physically injured, or the material loss is high, he or she expects the benefits of reporting to the police to be much greater than when only minor injury or loss is involved.…”

An Exploration of the Determinants of Reporting Crime to the Police in the City of Tianjin, China*

“…The victim-specific correlates encompass major demographic characteristics for personal victimization, such as gender, age, race, and education (Gottfredson and Hindelang, 1979;Hindelang and Gottfredson, 1976;Skogan, 1984), and household characteristics for household crimes, such as the number of household members and household income. The incident-specific variables tap the nature and situational features of the criminal incident, such as injury, monetary loss, and the victim-offender relationship (Gottfredson and Hindelang, 1979;Goudriaan, Lynch, and Nieuwbeerta, 2004;Greenburg and Beach, 2004;Kury, Teske, and Wurger, 1999;Skogan, 1984). With respect to the environment-specific correlates, most studies have investigated the effects of neighborhood characteristics, such as neighborhood disadvantage and social cohesion (Baumer, 2002;Bennett and Wiegand, 1994;Feins, 1983;Goudriaan, Wittebrood, and Nieuwbeerta, 2006;Ruback, Greenberg, and Westcott, 1984;Schoenberg and Rosenbaum, 1980).…”