The willingness to report employee offences to the police in the business sector

Abstract

Not all crimes are reported to the police. The same is true for employee offences experienced by firms. Indeed, companies that are victims of white- or blue-collar crime do not systematically report the incidents to the police or to other official authorities. Victim studies and victimization surveys are recent attempts to provide an insight into the amount of unreported crime. Drawing on the most recent business crime survey conducted in Switzerland, this article focuses on victim reporting of acts committed by employees such as fraud, theft, and unfair competition and examines for the first time for this country the variables associated with firms’ reporting behaviours. The analysis reveals that several factors might influence the reporting behaviour of firms. The decision to report a crime or not varies and depends on the type of business, the type of crime, its severity or the amount of damage resulting from the crime, the fear of reputational damage, or trust in the police.