Dark Figure Research Articles

Using Victimization Reporting Rates to Estimate the Dark Figure of Domestic Violence

Using Victimization Reporting Rates to Estimate the Dark Figure of Domestic Violence

A Narrative Review of Sex Tourism in India: a Danger that Needs Addressal

Kolkata holds the title for possessing Asia’s largest red light area. Therefore, India is one of the largest booming industries for commercial sex tourism and a transnational crime .Through the review it was analysed that human trafficking and sex slavery is in increased numbers. Various reports/case studies state that missing numbers of women and children are vast in number and included in dark figures of crime. It was also studied that some victims were voluntarily involved in the sex work while mostly children were exploited into the business. This paper explores the dark side of sex tourism in India. This paper is a discussion paper that reviews about sex tourism , activities that run under its shade such as human trafficking and slavery, reasons for this tourism developing in the country and at last recommends key points to deter illegal Sex tourism. Hence this paper highlights the situation of human trafficking of children and women into Sex tourism and gives attention to curb this criminality from the society.

Disability’s Dark Figure of Violence: Reporting Variations Across Intersections of Disability Type, Race, Ethnicity, and Sex

Disability’s Dark Figure of Violence: Reporting Variations Across Intersections of Disability Type, Race, Ethnicity, and Sex

The dark figure of murder and unsolved homicides in the USA

PurposeThis study aims to use a novel data set of 636 murderers sentenced to death in California to investigate homicide offenses that are committed but not prosecuted or officially solved, a concept known as the dark figure of crime.Design/methodology/approachUaing appellate records from the Supreme Court of California, which contain extensive information about the offender’s background, criminal offense history and mental health diagnoses, it was revealed that one-third of the offenders in the sample have additional homicide offenses for which they likely bear responsibility, but were not prosecuted.FindingsMost of these involve one or two additional homicides, though a wide range was observed spanning 0 to 93 additional victims. Those with a dark figure of murder and unsolved homicides had substantially more prior arrests, convictions and prison incarcerations and were higher in psychopathy, sexual sadism, homicidal ideation and gang involvement than offenders without a dark figure. Psychopathy and homicidal ideation were the most robust predictors of both the presence and magnitude of a dark figure of murder and unsolved homicides, whereas sexual sadism was inconsistently associated.Originality/valueA disproportionate amount of the unsolved murders in the USA are likely perpetrated by the most pathological types of offenders, those with extensive antisocial careers and severe externalizing psychopathology.

Dark Figure: Traders’ Crime Reporting Behaviour in Enugu State, Nigeria

Dark Figure: Traders’ Crime Reporting Behaviour in Enugu State, Nigeria

National Survey of Victimization: Another Trend-Crime Mapping Tools

The concept of the "dark figure" refers to the discrepancy between the actual occurrence of criminal activities and the quantity of reported incidents received by the criminal justice system, particularly law enforcement agencies. The term "dark figure of crime" pertains to unreported criminal incidents that are not captured inside the criminal justice system. Inclusion of these unreported crimes in official crime statistics would result in a significant amplification of the overall crime figures. To address the disparity between police records, namely police crime statistics, and the actual occurrence of crimes, many regions have initiated efforts to incorporate victims as the focal point of their investigations. In Indonesia, surveys of victims are generally carried out by private groups, and relate to certain types of crimes. The hesitancy exhibited by victims in reporting their experiences might provide challenges for law enforcement officials in their efforts to uphold societal stability. Victim surveys can extend beyond individuals who have directly experienced crime, encompassing tertiary victims (i.e., indirect victims) who harbour concerns about potential victimisation. Victim surveys can also be utilised to examine victims' perspectives within the complex framework of the criminal justice system, particularly in cases involving many victimisation incidents. Keywords: crime, survey, victims

Forecasting of COVID-19 spread in Poland as part of health needs mapping

Abstract The development of a robust model for COVID-19 forecasting was a crucial task undertaken by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Poland in response to the pandemic. High-quality forecasting rendered the inclusion of COVID-19 modelling in health needs assessment indispensable at the regional as well as country level. The model served as a basis for data-driven policy-making, such as the introduction or lifting of non-pharmaceutical interventions and the management of hospital resource allocation. The proposed model draws upon the population-adjusted infection fatality rates, vaccine-induced immunity, reported test positivity rates, and COVID-19-related mortality to infer the dark figure of cases. The estimates of the true number of infections lay the foundations for the computation of variant-dependent effective reproduction numbers, which constitute the workhorse of the model. The algorithm utilises the Bayesian prediction of those metrics along with the estimation of hybrid immunity levels to arrive at a short-term forecast of the course of the pandemic. The implemented model yields reliable results throughout the outbreak, allowing for the assessment of the strain of consecutive epidemic waves on the healthcare system. Key messages • Forecasting of COVID-19 spread is vital for health needs assessment and health crisis management policy-making. • Short-term forecasting of COVID-19 spread using effective reproduction numbers yields high-quality results.

The Reason for Non-Reporting Crime Victimization: A Study on Urban Area in Bangladesh

This study has mainly explored the current extend of dark figure of crime in urban areas in Bangladesh. It was exploratory in nature. The samples were selected through randomly using a clustered sampling technique from 14 particular areas and respondents were selected as victimized person or their household heads in this study. It has conducted with a structured and standardized survey questionnaire for data collection and using SPSS statistical tools for analyzing data. The socio demographic findings of the study is that the total number of the respondents was 3,957, among them most of them are female about 57% who are belonging in a Muslim family with average family size of 5 members with average age of 37 years, with average income 37,000 TK and living in their own house in urban area and most of them are housewife and about 52% have completed the secondary level of education. On the other hand the major findings are indicated as about 74% did not go to any institution for reporting, while only 26% are approached for legal help. As per the study findings, theft constitutes the highest number for victimization, where 79% percent of the theft victim did not report for it. Even though within the total type of crime, about 49 percent of the victim who did not report for the crime found out to be a theft victim. There are various reasons have found for dark figure of crime such as Police behavior is not friendly to reporting, victim considered the crime as insignificant and police service needed monetary involvement etc. but most of respondents have said they wanted to avoid the inconvenience of calling the police in such petty cases (About 25.7%). Finally, in this study, it has been explained the findings as the three main perspectives such as problem of existing criminal justice system, victim’s social and also their personal perspectives.

The “Dark Figure” of Incarceration—The Imposition of Consecutive Incarceration Sentences as a Window of Discretion

Objectives The decision to impose consecutive incarceration sentences, rather than concurrent, is an important discretionary decision that is often not structured by guidelines. We develop and test expectations, guided by the focal concerns framework, regarding case and defendant characteristics that are likely to evoke heightened perceptions of blameworthiness and danger, and thus should be more likely to result in consecutive incarceration. Methods We use data on individuals sentenced in Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2019 to predict the odds of receiving a consecutive incarceration sentence. Results We find that individuals convicted of violent offenses and those convicted of behavior spanning multiple criminal incidents were much more likely to receive consecutive incarceration. We found no evidence of differences across race of the defendant in the likelihood of receiving consecutive incarceration. We also demonstrate a strong relationship between consecutive incarceration and mode of conviction; those convicted by trial had much greater odds of receiving consecutive incarceration. Conclusions Our findings raise unexamined questions about sentencing policy, including sentencing guidelines, wherein the decision between consecutive and concurrent incarceration is highly consequential, unguided, and unstructured.

Modelling underreported spatio-temporal crime events.

Crime observations are one of the principal inputs used by governments for designing citizens' security strategies. However, crime measurements are obscured by underreporting biases, resulting in the so-called "dark figure of crime". This work studies the possibility of recovering "true" crime and underreported incident rates over time using sequentially available daily data. For this, a novel underreporting model of spatiotemporal events based on the combinatorial multi-armed bandit framework was proposed. Through extensive simulations, the proposed methodology was validated for identifying the fundamental parameters of the proposed model: the "true" rates of incidence and underreporting of events. Once the proposed model was validated, crime data from a large city, Bogotá (Colombia), was used to estimate the "true" crime and underreporting rates. Our results suggest that this methodology could be used to rapidly estimate the underreporting rates of spatiotemporal events, which is a critical problem in public policy design.

1000 Hypnagogic hallucinations as a manifestation of Parkinson’s disease

Abstract Introduction Narcolepsy and Parkinson’s disease (PD) share many similar symptoms. Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, sleep attacks, sleep paralysis, and hallucinations, with or without cataplexy. Hypnagogic hallucinations occur while falling asleep and the person experiencing them typically knows they are not real. Here, we present a case of hypnagogic hallucinations as a manifestation of PD in a patient without narcolepsy. Report of case(s) A 66-year-old female with a history of tremor was seen in the sleep disorders clinic with chief complaints of dream enactment and excessive daytime sleepiness. She described bruising after falling out of bed. On further questioning, she reported instances of seeing “death and a grim reaper as well as a dark figure”, usually upon falling asleep at night. She denied daytime hallucinations. She underwent diagnostic polysomnography (PSG), which showed mild obstructive sleep apnea and loss of rapid eye movement (REM) atonia during brief periods of REM sleep. Treatment for dream enactment was implemented by increasing her dose of melatonin (which she had been taking for insomnia) and initiation of clonazepam, which led to significant improvement in dream enactment. Over the next two years, she was diagnosed with PD and started on carbidopa-levodopa. She reported more frequent hypnagogic hallucinations during a follow-up visit, occurring 1-2 times weekly, which her neurologist attributed to being on higher dosages of dopaminergic therapy. During a recent visit, she reported no dream enactment and infrequent hypnagogic hallucinations. Conclusion Sleep disturbances in PD are common and include insomnia, hypersomnia, and REM behavioral disorder (RBD). A lesser appreciated association is that between hypnagogic hallucinations and PD, as depicted in this case. Partial hypocretin cell loss in PD has been postulated to result in disturbed hypocretin signaling, which probably explains the occurrence of narcolepsy-like symptoms (including hypnagogic hallucinations) in PD. Hypnagogic hallucinations are more common among patients with PD compared to the general population and tend to occur more as PD progresses, with longer duration of treatment with dopaminergic agents, with older age, and in patients with RBD. This case serves as an important reminder that hypnagogic hallucinations are not pathognomonic for narcolepsy and are likely underappreciated in PD. Support (if any)

An examination of the code of the street code and the dark figure of crime among an institutionalized sample

ABSTRACT There have been a number of studies that have examined the relationship between Anderson’s code of the street and criminogenic behavior. However, little research has been done on the potential relationship between street code adherence and the dark figure of crime. Using a sample of 299 institutionalized individuals the authors examine the relationship between street code adherence and official and unofficial records of assaults and motor vehicle theft. Results official records indicated that street code adherence was not significantly related to either offense type. However, when self-report data for assaults and motor vehicle theft was analyzed, there was strong evidence that street code adherence was a significant predictor. The results suggest that street code adherence is a better predictor of self-report offenses than those measured by official records. Thus, street code adherence may be key to shedding light on the dark figure of crime.

On the ‘darkness of dark figure’ of sexual crimes: Survivors' rape reporting experiences with the Nigerian police

While extensive studies have identified the influence of social perception and victims' self-blame as factors responsible for underreporting of rape, fewer studies have explored victims' interaction with police officers and possible impacts this could have on victims' reporting behavior. Therefore, this study explores rape victims’ interaction with officers of the Nigerian Police in the course of seeking justice. Twenty-seven victims of rape who interacted with police and six key informants working in women advocacy groups were interviewed in a qualitative study. Findings indicated that participants perceived police officers to have engaged in victim-blaming, slut-shaming, lack of empathy, refusal to cooperate with counsel, and delaying investigative processes. Evidence from the study suggests that police officers manifest influence from social stereotypes and rape scripts in their perception of rape victims. The study suggests the deployment of a special anti-sexual violence unit within the police, consisting of well-trained and skilled personnel in sexual crimes.

ТОРГІВЛЯ ЛЮДЬМИ В УКРАЇНІ У СВІТЛІ ПОЛІЦЕЙСЬКОЇ СТАТИСТИКИ (СІЧЕНЬ 2006 РОКУ — ТРАВЕНЬ 2023 РОКУ)

This paper aims to present crime trends in Ukraine from January 2013 to May 2023. The focus lies on the impact of the 2022 Russian military aggression against Ukraine on human trafficking and ‘satellite’ crimes. The authors consider the occupation of the Eastern Ukrainian territories and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in 2014. They also refer to statistics of refugee waves from Ukraine after February 2022. The decrease in registered crimes can be attributed to the reduction of statistical indicators. Police statistics are significantly impacted by the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine when the police «lost» data from the occupied territories. The authors analyse the trends of human trafficking and ‘satellite’ crimes in Ukraine. While the number of registered trafficking cases is small, the dark figure seems quite high. But no estimates about the extent of human trafficking in Ukraine are currently possible. Moreover, it is difficult to outline precisely how the war affected human trafficking. One must await the further development in 2023 in order to analyse police and court statistics. Crime trends in Ukraine for the last ten years are a good example to prove the common social nature of THB crimes, ‘satellite’ crimes and smuggling of goods, timber and drugs (especially since 2019). As the police statistics show, trends of all the mentioned crimes have been changing in a similar way. A rapid increase in crimes of pimping or engaging a person in prostitution illustrate the control activities in this crime sector by the police. The authors suspect that crimes of pimping or engaging a person in prostitution will significantly increase in 2023, parallel to the increase of human trafficking.

Influence of Secondary Victimization on the Dark Figure of Criminality from the Perspective of Criminology

The present work focuses on the study of secondary victimization in the obscure crime figure from the perspective of Criminology, demonstrating how both phenomena are correlated and bringing possible alternatives that make it possible to eliminate the occurrence of such factors. As possible alternatives that aim to reduce the occurrence of secondary victimization and obscure figures in crime, it is possible to point out the importance of formal social control, having trained professionals, who ensure that the path between the crime and the reporting of the fact to the competent bodies is the same. in the least serious way possible, effectively contributing to victims gaining confidence in reporting their occurrence, avoiding obscure crime figures and combating impunity with greater efficiency. It is also beneficial to raise awareness in society. It is inferred that due to the violence and humiliation, and considering the fragility and vulnerability generally inherent to the victims, the criminal practice generates serious consequences, and there is still a lot to be done for the victims in order to lead to a significant mitigation of the occurrence of the phenomena addressed in this work.

Of Mouchers and Men

Vagrants loomed large in nineteenth-century consciousness. In quiet country lanes and crowded city streets, mouchers, lurkers, casuals and cadgers appeared to be everywhere. Provoking a mix of fear, pity, and plain old curiosity, these off-grid antipodes to a settled life – what Mayhew called the wandering or nomadic ‘tribes’ – seemed almost to demand attention (p. 6). Given the inherently elusive nature of the subject, where officialdom could not easily venture, perhaps writers, artists, and intrepid social investigators could. Encouraged by the massive expansion in print and visual media, plus the insatiable Victorian desire to taxonomize, the ‘imagined and represented vagrancy’ found in early modern England by David Hitchcock was given a vigorous new lease of life.1 This especially applied to those legally defined as ‘rogues and vagabonds’, or even worse as ‘incorrigible rogues’ (pp. 12–13). Although at the end of the period under review the number of so-called habitual vagrants (dark figure allowing) was roughly that of the clergy and priesthood, so dense was their cultural presence at home that they also now wandered the fertile imaginary spaces of the frontier. But while the colonies had their share of idlers and ‘loafers’, out on the geopolitical ‘edge of civilisation’ it was North America and the Pacific, argues Alistair Robinson, that offered the most productive sites for re-purposing the idea of the vagrant (p. 9, 130–31).

Shedding light on dark figures: Steps towards a methodology for estimating actual numbers of COVID-19 infections in Germany based on Google Trends.

In order to shed light on unmeasurable real-world phenomena, we investigate exemplarily the actual number of COVID-19 infections in Germany based on big data. The true occurrence of infections is not visible, since not every infected person is tested. This paper demonstrates that coronavirus-related search queries issued on Google can depict true infection levels appropriately. We find significant correlation between search volume and national as well as federal COVID-19 cases as reported by RKI. Additionally, we discover indications that the queries are indeed causal for infection levels. Finally, this approach can replicate varying dark figures throughout different periods of the pandemic and enables early insights into the true spread of future virus outbreaks. This is of high relevance for society in order to assess and understand the current situation during virus outbreaks and for decision-makers to take adequate and justifiable health measures.

A pilot surveillance report of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test results among volunteers in Germany, 1st week of July 2022

PurposeWe hypothesized that SARS-CoV-2 infection numbers reported by governmental institutions are underestimated due to high dark figures as only results from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are incorporated in governmental statistics and testing capacities were further restricted as of July, 2022.MethodsA point prevalence investigation was piloted by rapid antigen testing (RAT) among participants of the VACCELERATE volunteer registry. 2400 volunteers were contacted, of which 500 received a RAT including instructions for self-testing in the first week of July, 2022. Results were self-reported via e-mail.Results419 valid RAT results were collected until July 7th, 2022. Between July-1 and July-7, 2022, 7/419 (1.67%) tests were positive. Compared to reports of the German Federal Government, our results suggest a more than twofold higher prevalence. Three out of seven positive individuals did not have a PCR test and are therefore likely not to be displayed in governmental statistics.ConclusionOur findings imply that the actual prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 may be higher than detected by current surveillance systems, so that current pandemic surveillance and testing strategies may be adapted.

A Study on Metaphorical Expression: Examining the Situations that Make Senior Year Students Enrolled in Classroom Teaching Programs Anxious

The present phenomenological study aims to understand, through images and metaphors, how senior class teaching majors perceive their studies at the faculty of education. The study group was assembled via criterion sampling, a method of purposive sampling. The study group consists of 12 senior class teaching majors (10 females and 2 males) from the education faculty of a Turkish public university during the 2017–2018 academic year (10 females and 2 males). The data was gathered through focus group meetings and analyzed using content and descriptive analysis techniques. All prospective teachers are concerned about passing the KPSS recruitment exam, according to the study. They used metaphors such as "a dark figure in front of a blackboard, a dark figure pondering, a dark figure inside and out, a dark figure of a group of hopeless students, a figure with a split face, a figure with question marks in his mind, and a student figure with confusion." Half of the participants stated that recruitment tests should be made fairer, while nearly the same number stated that pedagogical training for teaching certification should be eliminated and the teaching profession should be valued. In addition to expressing concerns about social pressure and oppression, the participants requested that they be respected by society and not oppressed.

Decisions, Decisions: An Analysis of Identity Theft Victims’ Reporting to Police, Financial Institutions, and Credit Bureaus

ABSTRACT Identity theft, the theft and misuse of another person’s identifying information, impacts approximately one-in-ten American adults annually. Despite its prevalence, low police reporting rates by victims means that the dark figure of identity theft remains substantial, with official statistics representing few cases. Instead, many identity theft victims report to credit card companies and banks, and some report to credit bureaus or other private institutions. Drawing on the 2016 National Crime Victimization Survey – Identity Theft Supplement, this paper investigates identity theft victims’ decisions to report to law enforcement, financial institutions, and credit bureaus. It finds that along with situational factors, measures of seriousness impact reporting to these institutions and most strongly predict reporting to law enforcement. Moreover, this paper tests for interaction effects between paying out of pocket for losses and the other measures of seriousness and finds that victims who pay out of pocket have distinct reporting patterns compared to those who are reimbursed. This paper thus contributes by improving our understanding of the nature of victimizations that come to the attention of identity theft’s various responding institutions.