Factors influencing crime reporting among young adults in Singapore

• Main Author: Chia, Yiik
• Other Authors: Olivia Choy
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165780
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The dark figure of crime has been widely discussed in current research on crime. Many academics have established that the best way to reduce the dark figure will be to encourage victims to report crime, which can involve a complex decision-making process. Many prior studies that have identified several crime reporting factors, namely the mode of crime, the type of crime, the type of perpetrator, the perception of crime severity and the trust in police’s competency. These studies, however, were either conducted in Western societies or focused largely on more conventional serious crimes like sexual assault and violent crimes. This study hence tests the hypothesis that all five factors have a significant influence on the victim’s willingness to report crime in Singapore. 74 community-dwelling adults were presented with 8 different crime vignettes of 4 crime types (unwanted contact, sexual comments, theft and threat of violence) across two modes of perpetration (online, offline). Willingness to report crime and trust in the police’s competency were assessed. Mode of crime, victim-offender relationship, perception of crime severity, trust in police’s competency and the type of crime were all found to have a significant effect on the willingness to report crime. This study builds upon the current knowledge of crime reporting in Singapore’s context and can have potential implications for informing public policy.