Crime reporting behavior and Black’s Behavior of Law

This study seeks to extend the theoretical explanation of victims’ crime reporting behavior to a social-structural framework by partially using Black’s Behavior of Law theory in a non-western context. Black’s theory of law postulated that police reporting varied according to five aspects of social l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International sociology 2012-01, Vol.27 (1), p.51-71
Main Authors: Kuo, Shih-Ya, Cuvelier, Steven J, Sheu, Chuen-Jim, Chang, Kuang-Ming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assault
Assaults
Behavioural sciences
Black, Donald
Crime
Cultural Groups
Expectations
Law
Legal theory
Males
Methodology (Data Collection)
Morphology
Organizational Culture
Police
Robbery
Social action
Social control
Social organization
Social stratification
Social structure
Taiwan
Theft
Theory
Values
Victims
Victims of crime
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Summary:This study seeks to extend the theoretical explanation of victims’ crime reporting behavior to a social-structural framework by partially using Black’s Behavior of Law theory in a non-western context. Black’s theory of law postulated that police reporting varied according to five aspects of social life: stratification, morphology, culture, organization and social control. Drawing on the most recent victimization survey conducted in Taiwan, this study focuses on victim reporting of assault, robbery and larceny. Some findings replicated the expectations proposed by Black’s propositions, but others were contrary to expectations. Female robbery victims reported to the police approximately three times more than males. The plausible reason might involve the notion of relational distance taken from Black’s morphology perspective. It was also found that the severity of infraction was positively related to crime reporting. The coexistence of a strong effect of the variable ‘crime seriousness’ and the statistical significance of Black’s social dimensions might imply that Black’s theory has value in forming the broad social context of social action but is insufficient as an explanation of individual behavior.
ISSN:0268-5809
1461-7242
DOI:10.1177/0268580911423054