engleski

Crime victims' reporting behaviour in Croatia: why do women (not) report their victimization?

The main goal of this presentation is to reveal women's reporting behaviour in Croatia and to analyse women's reasons for (non)reporting to the police in comparison to their male counterparts. The data has been collected through „The National Public Opinon Survey on Citizen Perception of Safety, Security and Police Collaboration with Local Community in the Republic of Croatia“ that has been done by United Nations Development Program and the Croatian Ministry of Interior. Interviews were conducted via telephone and personal interviewing. In a representative sample (N=4500), there are 43 victims of car theft (19 female), 188 victims of theft from the car (89 female), 293 victims of bike/motorbike theft (146 female), 184 victims of pocket-picking (121 female), 242 victims of burglary (121 female), 430 victims of fraud (192 female), 140 victims of robbery (73 female), 330 victims of physical assault (122 female), and 13 victims of rape (10 female). Pearson Chi-Square, Fisher’s Exact Test, and analysis of variance is used in data processing to examine how victims’ gender is related to reporting behaviour. Results show that the Croatian victims’ reporting behaviour is quite similar to victims’ reporting behaviour in other industrialized countries: reporting rates significantly vary in relation to the seriousness of crime and level of harm caused by the victimisation, except for rape which has serious consequences for victims, but reporting rates are extremely low. Reporting rates for property crimes are almost the same in male and female victims: they all equally report theft from car (61, 6% of male and 60, 7% of female victims), bike or motorbike theft (51, 0% of male and 54, 1% of female victims), pocket-picking (52, 4% of male and 50, 4% of female victims), fraud (31, 1% of male and 30, 2% of female victims), and burglary (69, 4% of male and 76, 0% of female victims). There is a slight, but not statistically significant difference in case of car theft that has been reported by 79, 2% male victims but 100, 0% female victims. Substantial and significant differences in reporting behaviour between male and female victims are found in the case of robbery (that is reported by 75, 3% female and 47, 8% male victims), and in case of physical assault (that is reported by 58, 2% female and 26, 9% male victims). However, the problem with female victims is that they calculate estimated costs and benefits of reporting their victimization to the police substantially more than male victims.

: crime victims; reporting behaviour; property crime; violent crime; gender differences

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