Crime victimisation in Australia : key results of the 2004 International Crime Victimisation Survey

Holly Johnson
ISBN 0 642 53881 6 ; ISSN 1326-6004
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology: 2005
(Research and public policy series, no. 64)

4. Reporting to police

Are all crimes reported to police?

One of the main objectives of crime victimisation surveys initially was to estimate the 'dark figure' of crime, the proportion that are not reported to police, and to explore the reasons why some crimes are not reported. Victims have various motives for reporting crimes to the police, including catching and punishing the offender, retrieving stolen property, making insurance claims, and receiving police protection (Mihorean et al 2001). The crimes most likely to be reported in the 2004 ICVS were those involving substantial property loss that was likely to be insured, such as theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles (Figure 13). Burglary, which involves invasion into one's home and property loss or damage, and has the potential to increase fear, was reported at a rate of 84 per cent. Robbery, which involves both property loss and violence, was the personal crime most likely to be reported, at just over one half of all incidents. Personal theft (without violence) was less likely to be reported than robbery, at a rate slightly higher than assaults or threats. Fewer victims of attempted burglary reported the incident to the police as compared with completed burglaries.

Are some people more likely to report than others?

Along with the variation in reporting rates by crime type are variations in reporting by personal and household characteristics of victims (Table 14). The ICVS explores reporting decisions of victims of assault/threat and burglary in some detail. With respect to assaults and threats, the following were correlated with reporting to police:

• age: victims 25 years of age and older were more likely to report to police than victims under 25 (39% compared with 29%);
• marital status: those who were separated or divorced were more likely than others to report assaults to police;
• income: those living in lower income households (weekly income of less than $400) were more likely to report to police than were those from higher income households (48% compared with 36%);
• main activity: unemployed people had the highest reporting rate (54%) and students had the lowest (24%);
• Indigenous status: Indigenous people were more likely than non-Indigenous people to report assaults to the police (50% and 36%);
• presence of a weapon: 61 per cent of those confronted with a weapon reported the incident to police compared with 30 per cent of other assaults;
• physical attack: 48 per cent of those who suffered an attack reported to police compared with 30 per cent of those who were only threatened;
• physical injury: 54 per cent of those who were injured reported the assault to police compared with 33 per cent of uninjured victims; and
• number of offenders: assaults involving three or more offenders were reported at a rate of 48 per cent compared with one third of assaults involving one or two offenders.

There were no statistically significant differences in reporting of assaults according to the gender of the victim, time at postcode, evening activities, the offender's relationship to the victim, language spoken at home, or the number of assaults experienced in the past year.

Table 14: Percentage of assault/threat reported to police by characteristics of victims

	Per cent reported to police
Age
16-24	29*
25 and over	39
Marital status
Single	32*
Married	39
De facto	34
Divorced/separated	49
Widowed	-
Household income
< $400 per week	48*
$400 or more	36
Main activity
Working	38*
Looking for work	54
Home duties	36
Student	24
Retired/pension	43
Indigenous
Yes	50*
No	36
Weapon
Yes	61*
No	30
Type of incident
Threat	30*
Attack	48
Physical injury
Yes	54*
No	33
Number of offenders
One	35*
Two	33
Three or more	48
- fewer than 5 cases * series is statistically significant, X2, p < .05 Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, International Crime Victimisation Survey, 2004 [computer file]

With respect to burglary, the following factors were associated with victims' decisions to report to the police:

• income: in the case of burglary lower income households were less likely to report to police (78% of those in the lowest income households compared with 85% of those in higher income households);
• residential stability: 75 per cent of those who lived at their current postcode for less than a year reported burglary to the police compared with 85 per cent who lived in their current postcode for a year or longer;
• property loss: burglaries in which property was stolen were reported to police at a higher rate than those with no property loss (88% compared with 67%); and
• value of property stolen: 75 per cent of burglaries involving loss of property valued at less than $1000 were reported to police compared with 95 per cent of those with property loss of $1000 or more (Table 15).

There were no statistically significant differences in reporting of burglaries according to language spoken at home, Indigenous status, or the number of break-ins experienced in the past year.

Table 15: Percentage of burglaries reported to police by household characteristics

	Reported to police
Household income
< $400 per week	78*
$400 or more	85
Time at postcode
< 1 year	75*
1 year or more	85
Property loss
Yes	88*
No	67
Value of property loss
< $1000	75*
$1000 or more	95
* series is statistically significant, X2, p < .05 Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, International Crime Victimisation Survey, 2004 [computer file]

What are the predictors of reporting?

A number of significant predictors of reporting assaults or threats to police have been identified through logistic regression analysis (Table 16). Even though differences in rates of reporting for male and female victims were not statistically significant in the bi-variate analysis, gender (female) became a significant predictor once the effects of other variables were controlled. All things being equal, women were more likely to report assaults to police than were men. In addition:

• age remains significant with older people more likely to report;
• those from lower income household have higher reporting rates;
• Indigenous assault victims have twice the odds of reporting once the effects of seriousness and other personal characteristics were controlled; and
• indicators of seriousness such as being attacked, suffering physical injury, and being confronted by three or more offenders all independently raised the odds of reporting assault to the police.

The presence of a weapon was not a significant predictor after controlling for the effects of others in the model. Marital status, time at postcode, main activity, evenings out and language spoken at home were also non significant.

Table 16: Factors predicting reporting assault/threat to police, logistic regression

	Adjusted odds ratios	SE	95% CI
Gender	0.77**	0.13	0.59 - 0.99
Age	0.52**	0.18	0.37 - 0.74
Marital status	0.8	0.15	0.6 - 1.08
Income	1.51*	0.23	0.96 - 2.39
Time at postcode	1.18	1.9	0.82 - 1.7
Unemployed	1.69	0.34	0.86 - 3.29
Evenings out	1.01	0.19	0.7 - 1.46
Language other than English	0.77	0.21	0.51 - 1.17
Indigenous	2.08**	0.34	1.07 - 4.05
Weapon	1.0	0.4	0.99 - 1.0
Attacked	1.76**	0.17	1.27 - 2.44
Injury	1.84**	0.2	1.25 - 2.7
Three or more offenders	1.85**	0.16	1.35 - 2.52
-2 log likelihood 1464.3 Model chi square 101.2** (13 df)
* p < .1; ** p < .05 Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, International Crime Victimisation Survey, 2004 [computer file]

Reporting burglary to the police was predicted by household income (those with higher incomes have higher reporting rates) and residential stability (rates higher for those living at the same postcode for one year or longer). If property was stolen during the break-in the odds of reporting to police were raised almost fourfold, net of the effects of other variables in the model (Table 17).

Table 17: Factors predicting reporting burglary to police, logistic regression

	Adjusted odds ratios	SE	95% CI
Income	0.52**	0.24	0.32 - 0.83
Time at postcode	0.53**	0.25	0.32 - 0.87
Language other than English	1.32	0.28	0.76 - 2.29
Indigenous	0.55	0.51	0.2 - 1.51
Property stolen	3.93**	0.21	2.62 - 5.88
-2 log likelihood 730.89 Model chi square 54.7** (5 df)
* p < .1; ** p < .05 Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, International Crime Victimisation Survey, 2004 [computer file]

Why aren't some crimes reported to police?

Among the 62 per cent of assault incidents that were not reported to the police, the most common reasons for not reporting was that the incident was not serious enough to warrant police intervention (43%) (Figure 14). Smaller percentages solved it themselves or did not report because the offender was known to them (14%), or felt it was not a matter for the police (14%). Less than one in ten reported it to other authorities, or felt the police would not or could not do anything to help them. Four per cent of victims feared reprisals from the perpetrator if they contacted police, and two per cent expressed a fear or dislike of the police. One in six victims gave reasons not captured by the survey.

Although there were no statistically significant differences in the proportion of assaults reported to police by male and female victims, there were differences in the reasons given for not reporting. For example:

• male victims were more likely not to report because the incident was not serious enough (51% compared with 35% of females);
• a higher proportion of female victims said they reported it to another authority (11% compared with 3% of males); and
• women more often felt there was nothing the police could do about it (8% compared with 5% of males).

The severity of the incident also determined the reason for not reporting to police:

• threats were more often not reported than attacks because the incident was considered to be not serious enough (46% compared with 35%);
• threats were more often considered not to be an appropriate matter for the police (15% compared with 10%);
• although small percentages, attacks were more likely than threats not to be reported because of a fear of reprisals on the part of the offender (6% compared with 3%);
• incidents involving weapons were more likely to not be reported because of a fear of reprisals (8% compared with 3%);
• victims who were injured were more likely than those not injured to cite fear of reprisals as a reason for not reporting (10% compared with 3%);
• incidents without weapons were considered not serious enough to report more often than incidents involving weapons (46% compared with 26%); and
• victims who suffered no physical injury were more often not reported because it was considered not serious enough (47% compared with 22% of those who were injured).

The offender's relationship to the victim also influenced reasons for not reporting to police:

• stranger assaults or threats were more likely than others to be considered not serious enough to report (53% compared with 33%), or not reported because the police couldn't do anything about it (9% compared with 4%);
• partner assaults were less likely than others to be considered not serious enough to report (19% compared with 45% of others);
• male victims of partner assault were more likely than females to say they solved the problem themselves (62% compared with 41% of females and 12% of non-partner incidents); and
• 28 per cent of female victims of partner violence feared reprisals from the offender if they involved the police; there were no male partner violence victims and three per cent of all other assault victims who gave this response.

Among the 15 per cent of burglary victims who did not report the incident to the police, the most prominent reason was because it was not considered serious enough, there was no loss, or they considered it to be 'kid's stuff' (33%). Eighteen per cent did not involve the police because they solved it themselves or the perpetrator was known to them, and 13 per cent felt the police could not do anything about it or there was a lack of proof (Figure 15). Ten per cent did not report because they felt the police would not do anything about it, and seven per cent felt it was not appropriate for the police. Sixteen per cent gave other reasons not included in these categories.

Reasons for not reporting break-ins to police were associated with the following:

• incidents with no property loss were more often than others not to be reported because it was not serious enough to involve the police (52% compared with 22%); and
• victims with property loss were more likely to say they solved the incident themselves (22% compared with 11%).

How satisfied were victims with the response of police?

Victims who reported burglary to police reported a high level of satisfaction with the police response. Three quarters of burglary victims who sought police assistance were satisfied with the way the police dealt with the matter (Figure 16). However, a lower percentage of assault victims were satisfied with the police (65%); almost three in ten were dissatisfied.

Who were most dissatisfied with the police response?

Certain characteristics of victims and incidents were linked to greater dissatisfaction with the response of police to assaults and threats, including:

• victims who suffered physical injuries (36% were dissatisfied compared with 26% of victims who were not injured);
• those confronted by weapons (25% were satisfied compared with 31% of incidents without weapons);
• victims aged 24 and under (38% were dissatisfied compared with 27% of older victims); and
• those who speak a language other than English at home (40% were dissatisfied compared with 28% of English-only speaking victims).

With respect to the police response to burglaries, some victims were more dissatisfied than others:

• lowest income households (24% compared with 19% of higher income households);
• those who speak a language other than English at home (30% compared with 18% of others); and
• Indigenous people (47% were dissatisfied compared with 20% of non-Indigenous people).

Conclusion

Reporting rates ranged from just over one third of assault/threats to 94 per cent of motor vehicle thefts. Major determinants of reporting assault to police are the seriousness of the event, including being attacked, injured and confronted by multiple offenders, but also personal characteristics of victims such as gender, age, income and Indigenous status. Reporting of burglaries is also determined by the seriousness of the incident in terms of property stolen, and by household characteristics such as income and stability of residency. Although most people who reported assaults and burglaries to the police were satisfied with how police handled the matter, levels of satisfaction were not uniform among victims. For example, younger victims, those who were injured in assaults, lower income households, Indigenous people and those who speak a language other than English at home expressed higher levels of dissatisfaction with the response of police.

The major reason for not reporting assault or burglary to police was that they were not considered serious enough to warrant police involvement. Substantial numbers of victims solved the problem themselves. However, some serious assaults involving injury to the victim, weapons or intimate partners did not report because they feared retaliation by the offender. These vulnerable victims are of particular concern and may require support or strategies by police and other agencies in order to receive help in preventing a repeat victimisation.