On the Correlates of Reporting Assault to the Police in Malawi

Aiden Sidebottom

doi:10.1093/bjc/azu083

Abstract

It is well known that many victims of crime do not notify the police. Research suggests that factors related to the victim, crime event and wider community are all implicated in the decision to report victimization. Few studies have investigated the correlates of victim reporting in developing countries, mainly owing to a lack of relevant data. It is therefore unclear whether the determinants of victim reporting in Western industrialized countries are generalizable to low-income developing settings. This paper explores the factors associated with victims reporting assault to the police in the African context of Malawi, using data from a nationally representative household survey. Results of a multilevel logistic regression indicate some similarities with the Western criminological literature, such as age of the victim and crime seriousness positively correlating with crime reporting. Other results seem to reflect the distinctive characteristics of Malawi, with victims more likely to report being assaulted if they are male, have access to a working phone or live in urban areas. The results illustrate the importance of studying criminological phenomena across a diverse range of settings. Implications of the findings for future research and crime prevention are discussed.

Highlights

Police knowledge about crime is heavily reliant on information from the public, crime victims
12.1 per cent of assaults against woman were reported to the police compared with 19.8 per cent of those committed against men
Underreporting is observed in many settings—crime’s dark figure appears omnipresent—and the estimates produced here are comparable with other African countries (Prinsloo 2006), it raises concerns over the adequacy of official police statistics to inform the development, targeting and evaluation of assault prevention programmes in Malawi

Summary

Introduction

Police knowledge about crime is heavily reliant on information from the public, crime victims. The vast majority of this research has taken place in Western Europe and North America, with few studies investigating the correlates of victim reporting in transitional and developing countries (exceptions include Bennett and Wiegand 1994; Zhang et al 2007), mostly due to concerns over the reliability of official crime statistics (where available) and a paucity of victim survey data with which to compare (Marenin 1997). On the topic of crime reporting knowledge on the extent, distribution and determinants of victim reporting can shed light on the accuracy of and gaps in official crime statistics, provide an indication of public confidence in the police and help devise mechanisms to facilitate crime reporting. Research in diverse and hitherto understudied contexts provides

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