Police Notification Research Articles

Declines in victims calling the police in 21st-century America: how the trends vary by race/ethnicity and racial-immigration contexts

Victims’ willingness to call the police facilitates access to the justice system and potential resources. Research shows a decline in police notification in the United States in recent decades, but the research has not assessed variation in trends across different racial/ethnic groups and different racial-immigration contexts. This study uses the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data from 52 metropolitan areas in the United States from 2000 to 2015 to investigate how victims across racial/ethnic groups vary in the likelihood of crime reporting based on geographic context. The results show that Black, Latino, and Asian victims’ crime-reporting behavior is influenced by the racial/ethnic and immigrant composition of the metropolitan areas. While the likelihood of police notification between racial/ethnic minorities and Whites is often similar when averaged across areas, minority victims in areas with higher percentages of Black or immigrant residents show a lower likelihood of crime reporting than their White counterparts. The higher percentage of immigrants is also associated with a steeper decline in the reporting of property crimes. These findings demonstrate the context-dependent nature of crime reporting. They help explain mixed evidence on the associations of race/ethnicity with police notification. To understand the crime-reporting behavior of victims, especially those who are racially marginalized, more attention to racial-immigration contexts is needed.

An Investigation into the Prevalence of Methamphetamine Related Enquiries to Local Government Environmental Health Officers.

Methamphetamine contamination of residential properties remains a serious public health concern for members of the public. External stakeholders including Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) and testing and remediation technicians are engaged on investigating whether contamination has occurred from manufacturing or smoking processes. More specifically, local council EHOs are responsible for managing clandestine drug laboratories when notified by police and also for responding to public enquiries. However, the full scope of these contaminated properties is not seen by any single stakeholder, making it very challenging to quantify these situations. To evaluate the prevalence of methamphetamine related enquiries from the general public to EHOs, this study surveyed and interviewed officers from around Australia. It was found that public enquiries were infrequent with only 6% of respondents having received enquiries in the last month, which indicates that people are seeking information from other sources. Interestingly, there were case study scenarios that also mentioned issues with awareness and the flow of information. Concerns regarding difficult cases, police notifications, and site visits were also highlighted. The results of this study provide a benchmark of how methamphetamine related cases are managed and highlight the need for trustworthy information that is available to EHOs, governments, industry members, and the public in a unified location.

One Case Study of Public Opinion from Micro-blog: Perspective from Negative Public Emergencies

Using the Sina Micro-blogs related to the China restaurant assault as a source, this study explores the pattern of public opinion evolution related to negative public emergencies and the reasons behind it. This paper divides the public opinion development process into four stages according to the change of micro-blog volume, namely, the gestation period, the climax period, the fluctuation period and the recession period. It also analyzes the change of public opinion focus based on the high-frequency words in different periods. The study found that surveillance videos sparked outrage during the gestation period, and the controversy about gender opposition pushed public opinion to its peak. During the fluctuating period, conscious public scrutiny could maintain the heat of the event. At the same time, the fluctuating period also showed an obvious phenomenon of emotional infection and catharsis. In addition, this paper analyzes the first police notification micro-blog of this incident, and finds the worthwhile improvements of official government micro-blog accounts in responding to such incidents.

Declining Trends in Crime Reporting and Victims’ Trust of Police in the United States and Major Metropolitan Areas in the 21st Century

Victims’ willingness to report crime and their opinions about the police are important indicators of police performance, police legitimacy, and trust in the justice system. This study examines two decades of trends in police notification and victims’ perceptions of the police in the United States and major metropolitan areas since 2000, using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). In contrast to previous studies indicating an increase in police notification in the 1980s and 1990s, the present study shows a progressive decline in police notification observed in the last two decades, especially since 2010. Furthermore, there has been a marked increase in victims’ mistrust of police responsiveness since the mid-2000s. Using multivariable regression models that control for potential changes in the characteristics of crime and survey methodology, we find that the victims’ rising distrust of the police is widespread in many metropolitan areas, in all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and especially so for victims of theft, burglary, and simple assault. In the discussion, we suggest that the changing policing strategies and the evolving economic, political, and social environments of the 21st century may help explain the trends identified by this research. Understanding victim reporting trends and victims’ opinions of the police may affect data and policy and help the justice system to better serve victims and enhance public safety.

Police notification by Black victims of violent crime: the role of victim gender and victim-offender relationship

Despite widespread distrust of police among Black Americans, research indicates that Black crime victims are more likely to call the police than other demographic groups. Using National Crime Victimization Survey data from 1994–2018, I employ logistic regression and compare the average marginal effects of victim race and gender on probabilities of reporting to police. Of four race-sex categories (non-Black and Black male and female victims), I find that Black women are most likely to report and Black men are least likely. But when the offender is a romantic partner, family member, or other household member, Black victims of either gender are more likely to report. Evidence points to the importance of victim gender and victim-offender relationship in understanding racial differences in crime reporting.

Co-offending and police notification: the differential reporting of young groups to the police

ABSTRACT Despite a wealth of research on the decision to notify police following victimization, there has been relative inattention to the role of a basic feature of crime: the tendency for individuals to offend in groups. Following this, the current research examines the influence of co-offending on the decision to notify police using information from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Results indicate that the co-offending is significantly and positively related to the likelihood of notification. Findings further indicate that this relationship is moderated by co-offender characteristics, such that young co-offenders and, to a lesser extent, male co-offenders are more likely than their counterparts to be reported to police. These results have important implications for understanding the invocation of both formal social control and disparities in these processes, indicating that co-offending not only has a direct effect on notification, but that it also changes the effect of offender characteristics on this decision.

Severity matters: The moderating effect of offense severity in predicting racial differences in reporting of bias and nonbias victimization to the police.

Previous research has noted contradictory findings regarding race and police notification, such that Black people indicate higher levels of distrust in the police yet report victimization to the police at rates similar to or higher than others. We investigated the role of offense severity in accounting for these discrepancies. We hypothesized that severity would moderate racial differences in reporting, such that Black victims would be less likely to report less severe victimization but more likely to report more severe victimization. We expected that these differences would be less pronounced for bias-motivated crime, regardless of other markers of severity. We used data from the 2003-2016 National Crime Victimization Survey, including information on 21,510 victimization incidents, 1,105 of which were hate crimes. We conducted logistic regression analyses in which reporting was regressed on victim race, offense severity, hate crime status, and control variables. We also examined interactive effects to disentangle whether severity moderated racial differences in notification. We observed a three-way interaction of Black victims, offense severity, and hate crime status. Specifically, for nonbias incidents, Black victims were more likely than White victims to report severe incidents, but there was no racial difference in reporting nonsevere incidents. Additionally, for nonsevere incidents, Black victims were more likely than White victims to report hate crimes, but there was no racial difference in reporting nonhate crimes. Offense severity plays an important role in the victim decision-making process. These patterns are different, however, by race and for hate crime victims, suggesting that people perceive hate crimes as important to report, regardless of their severity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Contextual Influences of Police and Social Service Providers on Formal Help-Seeking After Incidents of Intimate Partner Violence.

Police notification and social service acquisition are two forms of formal help-seeking linked to improved outcomes among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), including better socio-emotional health, improved physical health, and, importantly, increased safety. The majority of research devoted to the study of formal help-seeking among survivors of IPV focuses on incident- and individual-level factors and their relationship with formal resource utilization. Much less is known about community-level factors. Using a nationally representative sample of incidents of IPV from the National Crime Victimization Survey (2006-2016), this work explores how law enforcement and social service resources in a community are related to police notification and survivor acquisition of a victim service after an incident of IPV, net of incident- and individual-level factors. Logistic regression models indicate that the number of law enforcement personnel per 1,000 residents in a county is positively associated with police notification after an incident of IPV, and it exerts an indirect effect on survivor service acquisition through police notification. Additional analyses reveal that the race/ethnicity of the survivor of IPV is a key demographic in the explanation of this relationship, as incidents of IPV involving White and Hispanic survivors of IPV are more likely to come to the attention of police as the number of law enforcement personnel increases. The reverse is true for incidents involving Black survivors of IPV. No differences across survivor sex emerged. Potential reasons to account for varying effects across race/ethnicity are discussed as well as the importance of additional funding for police and social service agencies to serve survivors of IPV and meet the dual goals of offender accountability and survivor safety and well-being.

Intimate Partner Stalking among College Students: Examining Situational Contexts Related to Police Notification

A nontrivial percentage of men and women report being stalked in their lifetime, and many of these experiences were perpetrated by a current or former intimate partner. This study seeks to better understand the situational contexts of this social phenomenon among a high-risk population - college students - and explores how elements of the situational context of intimate partner stalking relate to police notification.Using data from college students attending 24 universities in the United States, logistic regression analyses are supplemented with conjunctive analyses of case configurations (CACC), which allow for the construction of situational contexts of intimate partner stalking and a comparison of contexts that are and are not reported to the police.Overall, police notification for intimate partner stalking is low (6%). Logistic regression analyses revealed that multiple types of stalking victimization and interference with activities are related to an increased likelihood of police notification. CACC indicated that the relevance of interference with activities is dependent upon self-reporting that the victimization resulted in an intimidating environment. Furthermore, multiple types of stalking victimizations and co-occurring victimizations (i.e., physical violence, sexual violence, and coercive control) are related to police notification if the victim also reports interference with activities and an intimidating environment. These relationships are driven by White, non-Hispanic women who live off-campus.Our dual analytical approach highlights the complementary use of traditional regression methods and CACC. These results provide insight for efforts to assist victims of intimate partner stalking in order to encourage police notification.

Examining the Paradox of Crime Reporting: Are Disadvantaged Victims More Likely to Report to the Police?

This study uses an intersectional approach to examine the “paradox” that disadvantaged victims often mobilize the police, despite their distrust and lack of confidence in the law. Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (1994–2016) were analyzed using logistic regression to model the predicted probabilities of police notification by victims of crime. Economic disadvantage, as measured by family poverty and lack of a high school education, increased the probability that females reported their victimization to the police, but decreased the likelihood that males did so. Economically disadvantaged black females had the highest probability of reporting, while economically disadvantaged black and Hispanic males had the lowest. Examining the intersectional differences across social groups shows that reporting behavior is not just a function of one attribute but rather is a function of multiple identities and structural inequalities.

Reporting Sexual Assault: Can Knowledge of How to Protect Forensic Evidence Influence Intentions to Report?

Responding to the high prevalence, low reporting, and poor conviction rates of adult sexual assault, Australian criminal jurisdictions have introduced protocols that allowed collection of medical forensic evidence from victims without police notification, since 1999. To assess the influence of reforms on potential victim behavior, this study measured lay knowledge of measures to protect forensic evidence of sexual assault, and predictors of intention to report adult sexual assault through the lens of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). An online survey was conducted with a sample of University of Canberra students and community members (N = 204). Results indicated moderate lay knowledge of how to protect evidence of sexual assault; however, only 46.1% of the sample were aware that evidence could be collected without police notification. The TPB successfully explained 55.6% of variance in intention to report future sexual assault. Participants who had experienced previous adult sexual assault victimization were significantly less likely to intend to report future sexual assault than those who had not. Knowledge of forensic evidence of sexual assault was not related to intention to report by self-efficacy as predicted; instead, it was mediated via subjective norms. Results indicated the potential value education to improve lay awareness of how to protect and report medical forensic evidence and to foster social norms that value reporting, particularly among school and university students.

The National Coronial Information System: Saving Lives through the Power of Data

AbstractThe National Coronial Information System (NCIS) is a secure database of mortality‐specific information on deaths reported to a coroner in Australia and New Zealand. The NCIS contains data on over 380,000 cases, investigated by a coroner. Data include demographic information on the deceased, contextual details on the nature of the fatality and searchable medico‐legal case reports including the coronial finding, autopsy and toxicology report and police notification of death. The database is available to coroners to assist investigations and appropriate access is available on application for research or monitoring projects.

FINAL YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF MEDICO-LEGAL PROBLEMS: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY AT IBN SINA NATIONAL COLLEGE IN JEDDAH

Forensic medicine encompasses various subspecialties that involve resolving legal issues using diverse techniques. Medical students should be prepared for their near future career, in particular, the challenge of facing medico-legal cases with their consequent legal responsibilities. The aim of the study was to assess final year medical students’ knowledge, attitude and practice of medico-legal problems. This crosssectional study included randomly selected 138 6th year medical students at Ibn Sina National College in Jeddah. 56 (40.6%) were male and 82 (59.4%) were female, aged 24.46±1.45 years, and 114 (82.6%) were Saudis. A pre-designed, self-answered 23-item questionnaire in English was devised by a specialist in the field and circulated though Survey-Monkey forms from November 2018 to January 2019. Most students had good knowledge (66.27%) and positive attitude (71.47%). Some had poor (14.49%) or no knowledge (19.24%), negative (15.67%), or borderline attitude (14.31%). Poor responses were the legal value of incomplete reports (28.99%), notifications of relatives before police notification (15.94%) and informed consent before photographing (21.74%). Many students (44%) had negative attitude towards their current medico-legal overall education and knowledge. Only 14.5% had been previously involved in photographic documentation. Students thought that the main sources of stress/pressure during managing medico-legal problems were the victim’s relatives (69.79%), followed by fear of legal consequences (54.17%). They also thought that the best educational stage for medico-legal training programs should be during undergraduate years (57.25%), or less frequently during residency (55.8%) or post-graduate years (46.38%). In conclusion, final year medical students were prepared for their future practice by good knowledge and positive attitude towards medico-legal problems. However, many gaps were detected between theory and practice. Therefore, we recommend medical colleges to initiate an undergraduate clinical forensic medicine training program. Moreover, residents and post graduate emergency physicians need to know their medico-legal responsibilities and to acquire technical skills to perform forensic evaluations of victims.

IMPLEMENTASI ALGORITMA FLOYD WARSHALL PADA APLIKASI PENGADUAN MASYARAKAT BERBASIS ANDROID

Public complaints are complaints from the public, Government Agencies or other parties verbally or in writing containing information, complaints, dissatisfaction or irregularities in the performance of the National Police that require further handling and settlement. In conducting complaints, the community usually uses short messages (sms) or telephone so that the community must have a personal contact number of the police member who can be contacted. To make it easier for the public to make complaints, a complaint application is needed to find out the policeman to be contacted. Application that will be developed based on preliminary research that took place at Kuningan Police Station. Mobile-based applications that are needed a lot in searching for police and the location of traffic accidents and providing a description of pastoral events. The application that is created only shows the location of the accident in Kuningan Regency. In finding the nearest route, it will be displayed in the form of maps. The police can choose directions from the details of the complaint, then the system will display the results in the form of a route on maps. In this application there is also a service to find out the location of the community by using GPS technology. And the author uses the Floyd Warshall algorithm to determine the nearest police station and determine the route from the location of the police station to the scene. As well as in storing data in this application the author uses MySQL or phpMyAdmin as a web server in storing event data and police data, notifications and reports concerned with the complaint application. And in the development of this application is based on client-server.Keywords: Floyd Warshall Algorithm, GPS, Kuningan Regency, Mobile, MySQL, Police station, phpMyAdmin, Web Server, Community

Crime Victims’ Decisions to Call the Police: Past Research and New Directions

Over the past 50 years, researchers in the United States and abroad have debated the inherent inequities within justice systems that contribute to the underreporting of crime to the police. Our review summarizes existing knowledge about victim reporting and outlines new directions in theory and empirical research that situate this work within a broader perspective on victim help-seeking. We begin with a short review of the historical development of research on victim reporting and its implications for research and social policy. We then review and critique major explanations of victims’ reporting behavior and outline a new integrated multilevel framework. This model draws on the broader help-seeking literature to study police notification and other forms of victim help-seeking as interrelated systems that respond to social-contextual factors and feedback effects. We conclude by outlining the core empirical implications of this multilevel theoretical framework and illuminating the most significant data and research needs.

Why Latino Youth (Don’t) Call Police

Latinos have been remarkably absent from research on the degree to which citizens notify police about violent crimes. This article takes a few small steps toward filling this knowledge gap through a case study of Mexican American youth in Little Village, the largest Mexican neighborhood in the Midwest. We ask: Why do some Latino youth notify police about violent crimes more than others? Using a unique survey data set of neighborhood youth ( N = 292), we find that (1) the majority of youth in the sample do, in fact, notify police about violent crimes and (2) logistic regression models reveal the importance of social ties with gang members, negative past encounters with police, and immigration status as significant correlates of willingness to notify police about violent crimes. We conclude by discussing implications for research on Latino police notification and policy efforts to improve Latino community–police relations.

Optimization of the Allowable Speed on Iran’s Freeways to Reduce Violations and Accidents, Using Zero-Truncated Poisson Regression Model

Countries from all over the world including Iran, consider different maximum allowable speeds to control and maintain traffic safety on their freeways, but these actions have not been successful even with the police surveillance. Even though speeding is not the only cause of accidents, past studies indicate that speed plays a vital role in such events. Since respecting the speed limits have not prevented driving violations and traffic accidents, there’s doubt among decision-makers, about the applicability and safety of these legal speed limits in different weather and traffic conditions. They think perhaps there is a need for an optimized and safe speed after doing required studies. Even in the police instructions and notifications in unfavorable weather conditions, the word “safe speed” is used more than the “legal speed” and its limit is not mentioned and its determination is assigned to drivers according to their mental and physical conditions, type of vehicle, and the weather condition. This matter leads to uncertainty for drivers in selecting the right speed.This research is intended to achieve a safe and optimized speed for freeways in Iran, by considering a reasonable adjustment which is acceptable by the drivers so that a substantial decrease in driving violations and accidents could be observed. This work is done by using models developed for predicting violations and accidents on Iran’s freeways. The results indicate that by reducing the allowable speed of freeways from 125km/h to 105km/h, a 48% and 23% reduction of violations and traffic accidents could be achieved.

Children Living with Domestic Violence: A Differential Response through Multi-agency Collaboration

ABSTRACTDeveloping appropriate pathways to assist children living with domestic and family violence (DFV) is challenging, particularly given the rise in police notifications to Child Protection (CP) relating to exposure to domestic violence. In this article, the argument is put that strong collaboration between organisations can provide a differential response in which only those children requiring an investigation are referred into CP, while all other children and their families are diverted to community-based organisations. This is foundational for the development of a more ethical and supportive response to children and their families living with DFV. The article draws on findings from a case study of the Multi-Agency Triage project in Melbourne, which developed through a collaborative risk assessment process a differential response to manage referrals of children living with DFV. The case study drew from observations of the triage, nine interviews, and analysis of administrative data.IMPLICATIONSStrong collaborations between organisations need to provide the foundation for differentiated referral pathways for children living with DFV based on informed risk assessment.Through multi-agency risk assessment, children and their families who do not meet the threshold for a child protection investigation can be diverted early into a community sector organisation for attention.

The Mobilization of Criminal Law

Perhaps few decisions have more of an impact on the operational functioning of the criminal justice system than the decision by victims of crime to notify the police. Researchers in the United States and abroad have found that victims often choose not to mobilize the criminal law in the aftermath of a victimization event. A large percentage of property and violent crimes never appear in official crime data estimates. Most remain hidden in the dark figure of crime. Victim nonreporting has numerous implications for criminal justice system processing, crime control policy, and substantive research on the causes and correlates of crime. Studies have long sought to identify the victim-, incident-, and community-based mechanisms that might account for patterns of police notification. Although several important findings have emerged, critical questions remain unanswered. This article provides a critical overview of the determinants of victim nonreporting and charts potential avenues for future research.

QUALITY ASSESSMENT ON EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES DOCUMENTATIONS IN TRAUMA CASES.

Background: The quality assessment would enhance accountability in emergency medical services (EMS) and provide EMS agencies with data to measure their system’s overall performance and to develop sound strategic quality improvement planning. The aim of this study was to determine the quality assessment of emergency medical service documentation for trauma cases. Methods: The quality assessment of emergency medical services (EMS) documentation for trauma cases was conducted in the Emergency Medical Communication Centre, Hospital TengkuAmpuanAfzan (HTAA), Kuantan Pahang. A stratified convenience sampling was used as sampling method and the EMS documentation checklist was adopted by Monash University, Centre for Ambulance and Paramedic Studies. The score of the documentation will be reflected with the health care personnel background. The data were analysed by using (SPSS) version 19.0 for windows. Results: 235(100%) of EMS healthcare personnel had fulfilled the requirement for date, patient details, caller details, police notification and also hospital destination. However, for the medications given, only 15 out of 235 documents were documented and 235 (100%) were excluded the adverse effect and allergic reaction of medication to the patient. The overall mean of the quality assessment documentation was 75.013 while the standard deviation was 11.780. Based on the result shown, there was a significant association between years of employment with the quality assessment (t=-4.01, p<0.001). Conclusion: Only 40% of the documentation were categorised as quality documentations. And only years of employment had significant association with the quality of emergency medical service documentation. Meanwhile, there was no significant association of races and gender with the quality emergency medical service documentation