Victimization and Reporting to the Police: The Role of Negative Emotionality

Objective: Current research has suggested that characteristics of the victim (e.g., sex, race, age) and situational factors (e.g., injury, relationship to the offender) influence police reporting. Questions remain as to what other variables influence police reporting as well as the particular motivational mechanisms that move victims, and others, to report victimization incidents. This study introduces negative emotionality to investigate the direct and mediation effects of emotions on police reporting. Method: Using data from the British Crime Survey, regression models were used to explore the path from individual and incident characteristics to police reporting. Negative emotionality was introduced into the regression models as a key mediator in this pathway. Results: Negative emotionality significantly increased the chance of police reporting. Negative emotionality also mediated some of the influence of individual and incident characteristics on police reporting. Conclusion: The results suggest that emotions are important in determining why some incidents come to the attention of the police. They also reveal that victims who come to the attention of the police are often dealing with a multitude of intense negative emotions. This suggests that programs that focus on victims’ emotions, such as restorative justice, may be more successful in meeting the needs of victims than traditional approaches