Examining the Disparity between Juvenile and Adult Victims in Notifying the Police: A Study of Mediating Variables

Abstract

Extant research has found that crimes against juveniles are substantially less likely than crimes against adults to come to the attention of the police. Few studies, however, have attempted to systematically examine variation in police reporting between juvenile and adult victims. With assault and robbery data from the 1994-2001 National Crime Victimization Survey, this research explores this issue by addressing whether victim, offender, and situational characteristics of crime are effective in mediating the disparity in police reporting between juvenile and adult victims. Current findings indicate that the relationship between juvenile victims and police reporting was only attenuated, in part, after controlling for school victimizations and crimes perpetrated by juvenile offenders. Current findings also reveal that distinguishing crimes reported to nonpolice officials had no effect, attenuating variation in police reporting between juvenile and adult victims.