An estimated 40% to 50% of victims don\u2019t report crimes to police.<\/p>\n
Jayden Richards was interested in the \u201cwhy\u201d behind that statistic. She is a doctoral student in social welfare with a focus on criminology in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare.<\/p>\n
Because of her research on the topic, Richards was one of five students nationally who were invited to the Department of Justice\u2019s 50th<\/sup> anniversary celebration of the National Crime Victimization Survey in Washington, D.C., during the fall semester.<\/p>\n The goal of the conference was to highlight how the survey data could be used, Richards said.<\/p>\n The National Crime Victimization information comes through the U.S. Census rather than police reports. \u201cThis is about the only way to look at crimes that aren\u2019t reported to police,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n In her research, using data from 1994-2020, Richards studied factors such as the victim\u2019s gender; whether a weapon was used; whether the victim had previously been a crime victim; whether the crime involved property or included violence; how close to the victim\u2019s home the incident occurred; and whether the victim knew the criminal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe presence of a weapon was the most significant finding,\u201d Richards said. \u201cThe odds of reporting a crime were over two times larger when the offender had a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n Another key finding was that victims were more likely to report the crime if they didn\u2019t know the perpetrator. \u201cThe odds were 1.6 times greater that they would report the crime if they did not know the criminal. So, essentially, they were less likely to report the crime if they knew the person,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was consistent with prior literature and what we would expect.\u201d<\/p>\n While those two factors had the strongest significance, Richards also found that females were more likely to report crimes. \u00a0When the crime occurred closer to home, victims were also more likely to report it. In addition, violent crimes were more reported than property crimes. Those who had been crime victims fewer times previously were also more likely to report a crime.<\/p>\n \u201cYou would think that if someone had a large number of crimes committed against them, at some point they would be more likely to report the crimes but that was, in fact, not true.\u201d It\u2019s possible, she said, that the population that generally has more crimes committed against them is also more distrustful of police. \u201cThat could be a discussion for future research,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Richards, who is from Wausau, earned her bachelor\u2019s in psychology from UW-Madison in 2019, then completed her master\u2019s in criminology and crime analytics from 51ÁÔÆæ in 2022. She started the doctoral program right after she completed the master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m interested in the psychology behind criminal behavior and that\u2019s what really drove me to look at criminology as a field. It\u2019s so interesting and much more about statistics than the crime shows make it out to be.\u201d<\/p>\n She came to 51ÁÔÆæ because of her interest in statistics and research. \u201cI really liked the fact that 51ÁÔÆæ is a Research 1 institution, and they just have so many opportunities for students.\u201d The fact that the university offered the criminology program also impacted her decision, she added.<\/p>\n Richards is starting work on her dissertation, which will focus on rape myths and how they affect both victims and perpetrators, but she is hopeful she can eventually continue the crime victim research.<\/p>\n \u201cThe great thing about me being able to present this research at the conference was that I got to share my findings and where I thought research could be headed. I was able to offer suggestions to a lot of very consequential people within the criminal justice system. That was extremely neat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some 40% to 50% of crimes are never reported to police, so a 51ÁÔÆæ grad student turned to U.S. Census data to figure out why. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":130829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[246,247],"display_categories":[352,116],"related-coverage":[338],"uwmnews-feed":[347,156,153],"class_list":["post-130828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-business-world-affairs","section-politics-social-science","display_categories-top-story-tertiary","display_categories-top-story-section","related-coverage-research","uwmnews-feed-community-engagement-professions","uwmnews-feed-criminal-justice","uwmnews-feed-graduate"],"yoast_head":"\nPresence of a weapon proves significant<\/h3>\n
Factors involved<\/h3>\n
The psychology of criminal behavior<\/h3>\n