Cja/314 Week 1 Dq 1

273 Words2 Pages
The “Dark Figure of Crime” is the amount of underreported as well as unreported criminal crimes that society does not report to authority. In this case, unreported crimes do not make it to the statistics of official crime. One believes that some people in society are hesitant to report a crime to police for numerous reasons. These reasons can be because of the act of negative criminal behavior from one individual to another. A few common unreported crimes that deal with negative sexual related criminal behavior toward another individual are visible. These are known as rape as well as sexual assault. The reasons many may feel hesitant to report crimes include fear of the accused criminal such as retaliation, shame or embarrassment of society’s judgment as well as the law enforcement not believing his or her statements. Other reasons may include courtroom participation as well as the thought of the crime being too petty to report. Although the act of negative criminal behavior from one individual to another such as rape and sexual assault is indeed underreported, there are also other crimes unreported. These may include larceny, property crimes as well as other crimes that may backlash toward the individual reporting a crime. Reasons many may feel hesitant to report these crimes include the fear of becoming arrested. This would produce effects of retribution, community service, criminal record, family awareness as well as money difficulties. Another crime that goes unreported is crimes that are unseen. For instance, theft or shoplifting that is successful. References: Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminology Today. An Integrative Introduction (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice
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