Reporting Sexual Assault: A Social Ecology Perspective (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Ménard examines the effects of individual and contextual factors on victims' decision to contact the police. She investigated social norms regarding the reporting of criminal events and examined the combined effects of individual and county factors on sexual assault victims' decision to contact the police. At the individual level, the odds of the victim contacting the police were greater when the assault was severe or was committed by a stranger. However, even severe assaults by known offenders were unlikely to be reported. At the county level, indicators traditionally associated with crime reduced the odds of victims contacting the police. In addition, increased gender equality and victim services decreased the odds of rural as compared to urban victims reporting to the police.