Reporting rate
Definition
The proportion of crimes experienced by victims that are brought to the attention of police. Reporting rates vary substantially by offence type, victim characteristics, and trust in law enforcement, and are the first filter through which the dark figure of crime is created.
Related terms
- Attrition
- The progressive loss of cases as they move through the criminal justice system: from crime committed, to reported, to recorded, to prosecuted,...
- Counting rules
- Administrative instructions that specify how agencies should convert incidents into statistical records: how to count multiple victims of one incident, how to...
- Notifiable offences
- In England and Wales, the category of offences that must be formally reported to the Home Office and included in national crime...
- Police-recorded crime
- Criminal incidents formally logged by police following a report or officer discovery, counted according to nationally defined rules and submitted to a...
- Secondary victimisation
- Additional harm caused to a victim through the process of reporting and investigation, such as disbelief, insensitive questioning, or retraumatisation. Fear of...
Explained in
- Official Crime StatisticsThe proportion of crimes experienced by victims that are brought to the attention of police. Reporting rates vary substantially by offence type, victim charact...