The Reason for Non-Reporting Crime Victimization: A Study on Urban Area in Bangladesh

This study hasmainlyexplored the current extend of dark figure of crime in urban areas in Bangladesh. It was exploratory in nature. The samples were selected through randomly using a clustered sampling technique from 14 particular areas and respondents were selected as victimized person or their household heads in this study. It has conducted with a structured and standardized survey questionnaire for data collection and using SPSS statistical tools for analyzing data.The socio demographic findings of the study is thatthe total number of the respondents was 3,957, among them most of them are female about 57% who are belonging in a Muslim family with average family size of 5 members with average age of 37 years, with average income 37,000 TK and living in their own house in urban area and most of them are house wife and about 52% have completed the secondary level of education. On the other hand the major findings are indicated asabout 74% did not go to any institution for reporting, while only 26% are approached for legal help. As per the study findings, theft constitutes the highest number for victimization, where 79% percent of the theft victim did not report for it. Even though within the total type of crime, about 49 percent of the victim who did not report for the crime found out to be a theft victim. There are various reasons have found for dark figure of crime such as Police behavior is not friendly to reporting, victim considered the crime as insignificant and police service needed monetary involvement etc. but most of respondents have said they wanted to avoid the inconvenience of calling the police in such petty cases (About 25.7%). Finally, in this study, it has been explained the findings as the three main perspectives such as problem of existing criminal justice system, victim’s social and also their personal perspectives.


Introductions and Background:
Dark figure of crime means the unreported crime that mainly showed crime statisticswhich were undetected, unchallenged and offender remain unidentified (Singh, 2011).In briefly, it means crimes which are not officially recorded by police in police station (Bohm and Haley, 2005).On the other hand, it also reflected the infamous reputation of official crime statistics by comparing the real nature of reported crime and unreported crime (Bartol and Bartol, 2011).As many crimes are not reported to police, they could not know all of the criminal incidents that occurred in our surrounding (Reid, 1996).
So, many of the crimes are remaining hidden from real statistics of victimization survey.
In 1830, the term "Dark Figure of Crime" was first recognized by Adolphe Quetelet ( (Young, 2001).It was discovered alongside the advent of large cross national victimization surveys.The first National Crime and Victimization Survey (NCVS) was took place in the USA in 1977, and was closely followed by similar surveys in the United Kingdom namely International Crime and Victimization Survey (Fohring, 2015).
The concept of "Dark Figure of Crime" has utilized broadly by Skogan after considering the social and individual consequences of crime victims but he did not compare these data with reported official or non official crime statistics (Skogan 1977).But now a day, this comparison has become a more demandable criterion to not only in developed countries but also various developing countries.According to National Crime Victimization Survey in United Nations, about 34% of total crime remain unreported to police United States mainly exploring the dark figure of crime is not just to answer the questions how much of it becomes revealed but rather what will be the selective properties of any particular innovation for its illumination (Biderman, and et al., 1967).In England and Wales there are various studies to explore the geographical inequality of the dark figure of crime.A recent study of UK has showed dark figure was also larger in suburban, low-housing neighborhoods with large concentrations of unqualified citizens, immigrants and non-Asian minorities (Buil-Gil and et al. 2020).In England, in recent time it has also showed that the dark-figure metaphor was popularized and some of its notable promoters used it as an argument against victim surveys (Castelbajac, 2014).
In Bangladesh, dark figure of Crime or unrecorded crime is not a new phenomenon.A recent study of dark figure of crime that held in Tangail distrct in Bangladesh showed that dark figure of crime is more than actual crime figure which deprived the victims to get remedy and justice (Kamruzzaman, 2016).
There are various reasons have found behind the hidden or unreported crime.The overall situation is depends on several factors: geographical area; law enforcement agencies; willingness of victims; social perception; level of disorganization; level of corruption; avoidance to embarrass offender (relative etc.); positive view-points toward crime; lengthy criminal justice system; intimidation by offender; publicity after reporting; and many other factors (Bohm and Haley, 2005).More specifically, in Bangladesh, the major causes of dark figure of crime aremale dominated society, publicity, negligence to the nature of crime, indispensible women suppression, traditional culture, mistrust in outside, lengthy criminal justice system, unwillingness of victim, corruption in system, relationship with offender (Kamruzzaman, 2016, Islam and et.al. 2012).So, from of these two studies, it is mostly apparent that police corruption or distrust toward police and unwillingness are the prime causes has found in Bangladesh.Devine J has showed important cause why people not to report crime because they may not know that he or she is a victim of a crime (http://ezinearticles.com/?Failure-to-Report-a-Crime&id=2910297).Another study has showed property crime was mostly remaining underreporting and there was a strong association between factors influenced by the economic cycle and individuals' reporting inclinations.After considering the relationship, it also apparent that people who suffer some financial loss as a consequence of the crime, they were remain more reluctant to report crime (MacDonald, 2001).Now, it is also can apparent that researcher including criminologists and sociologists attempted to get a deeper insight into the impact that unreported crime might hold for the criminal justice systemwhich calls into question the reliability of official crime statistics.So it can be easily said that dark figure of crime was not only related to the seriousness of crime but also to the activity of justice in reaching the guilty" (Mosher et al, 2002).If this situation is remaining like present time the criminal justice system will be unable to protect society and offer the necessary assistance and the offenders or potential offenders will also be negatively impacted and may also be deprived of the necessary assistance to help them to lead a better life (Doorewaard, 2014).It can also be argued that not reporting crime can lead to victims experiencing further disappointment and frustration (Tarling & Morris, 2010).Therefore, it's urgent to know about the extent of dark figure of crime to recover the negative impression toward criminal justice system.For a crime to be recorded three things must be provided.Firstly, a person must know that a crime has been committed and must be aware to be record.Secondly, the person who committed or the one who observed the crime must be reported to the relevant authorities.Thirdly, the police or relevant authorities to whom the crime has been reported must also accept that the act has been done against the law (Coleman and Moynihan, 1996).
In this study, it has focused mainly the overall extent or condition of dark figure of crime in 14 urban areas including 12 city corporation areas and two other crime prone areas.This paper quantifies the dark figure of crimes through a systematic comparison between official crime figures and victimization surveys in selected urban area over 2019 (Crime victimization survey in selected urban areas of Bangladesh, 2019).The main objective of this study was to find out the causes of dark figure of crime in such areas and also to discover the relationship between factors of crime victimization and dark figure of crime.It also has revealed that how socio-demographic factors influences crime victim for not to report crime.This study is exploratory in nature and samples are selected through randomly.Here data are collected from respondents who are being victimized of a crime or their household heads with a survey questionnaire.All of these data are explained through SPSS statistical tools.

Objectives of the Study:
In this study, it has tried to explore the extent of dark figure of crime and also relate crime

Research Type:
This study is exploratory in nature because it has explored the dark figure of crime existing in Bangladeshi's society.Here in this study, it is important to note that exploratory research does not make sense for study areas with a lot of existing research and also it would be best suited to topics that have not been studied yet.So, during the early stages of a project or research area, exploratory research is conducted to test the feasibility of conducting a more extensive study.

Research Area:
This study has covered14 city areas (including eight metropolitan areas and 12 city corporation areas).It is supposed that the city corporation areas have a higher propensity for crime victimization than the other cities.So it has been easy to find out the real drug figure of crime on those areas.Besides the city corporations areas, two spatially characterized cities have been selected, which have characteristics like higher population density, several industries, and higher population mobility rates, which make them more appropriate for the study.

Study Population:
In this study, crimes against property and crimes against persons have been characterized as Crimes.The study population is selected here as the crime victims who are at least 12 years old, have been victimized within the last 12 months (January 2018 -December 2018), whether they have reported the crime to the police or not, and they can explain the fact what researchers need for the study.Finally, the victim's household heads have also been selected as study population in the absence of the subject.

Sample Selection:
In this study,it has found that the selected cities were clustered according to distribution, and the number of wards was selected randomly using a clustered sampling technique from each city.All the households of the selected wards were treated as the sampling unit of the study.Households were selected from the wards by a systematic random sampling technique.
The sample size was determined by using the following formula, where the number of victims is not defined.
The following statistical formula is used to estimate the minimum sample size: The sample size,  = As the size of the population is large, therefore, to ensure the validity and reliability, the original sample size has been determined by using design effect, 1.5.Considering, z=1.96, p=0.5, d=0.02; the minimum sample size is 3601.In order to minimize human errors and refusal of the respondents, the absolute precision level has been increased.In that case, the total sample size would be 3601.Therefore, a total of 3640 (for equal distribution into 14 cities) respondents statistically come up from the 8 division 14 cities, i.e., 260 from each city.
While approaching the respondents, the enumerators also looked for victims other than the respondents who first came in contact.As a result, other victims from the same household also were covered, which increased the total number of respondents.The current total number of respondents is 3,957.Multiple responses in the sense of multiple victimization information have also been considered in the study.

Data Collection:
This study has conducted with a structured and standardized survey questionnaire for data collection that includes both quantitative and qualitative information.The questionnaire was finalized incorporating all the feedback from the results of pre-tests.Here in the study, it has conducted to pre-testing the questionnaire to check and double-check the reliability and validity of the main research tool which will generate the findings.The questionnaire that was used for data collection was containing both openended and close-ended with multiple response options.A direct face-to-face interview technique with the completed questionnaire was used to effectively fulfill the study purpose.A total number of 3,957 respondents' information was collected while multiple responses found common in most of their responses.

Data Processing:
In this study, the quantitative data were processed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software and Microsoft Excel software.Here, the qualitative data were coded and then tabulated.
Finally, Data has analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistical tools like frequency distribution, cross-tabulation, central tendency.Various types of statistical charts are used for the presentation of findings.Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analysis are used.

Location:
The respondents who agreed to participate in the survey constituted the total number of sample sizes at the end, with an average of 7 percent from each of the cities.

Gender of the Respondents:
The total number of the participants was 3,957, among them, Female was higher 57 percent (2268), and Male constituted about 43 percent (1683).The presence of the third gender (6 respondents) also noticed.

Age of the Respondents:
The minimum age was 12 to participate in the survey.According to the study, the average age of the respondents is about 37 (SD 13.073) years with a maximum of 108 and a minimum of 12 years

Family Size:
The average family size is 5.It represents the general nature of population composition in the city areas, which happens to be expensive and most commercial.

Religion:
The percentage of religious groups presented the actual percentage of the total population of Bangladesh.The believer of Islam stands at 88.5 percent (3500), Hindu stands at 11.2 percent (442), and Christian, along with Buddhists, scored around a half percent of the total respondents.

Education:
As per the survey result, the participants have a higher education level in at least 23 percent of the cases, and about 52 percent of the respondents have varying education levels from secondary level to higher secondary level.

Occupation:
Due to the diverse nature of the population and the higher presence of females than males, the survey result also has a diverse occupation in nature.About 45 percent of the respondent found to be a housewife who participated in this survey.Among the professions, business constitutes a higher proportion with 17 percent, government or private service holder constituted about 16 percent.A considerable number of students also participated in the study that constituted about 11 percent.Other occupations are Doctor, Driver, Day Labour, Farmer, Tailor, etc.

Family Income (Monthly):
The average monthly income of the respondents and their families all together was recorded as 37,000 takas approximately, where the lowest income was 3000, and the maximum was 60,00,000 taka.

Level of Satisfaction:
The level of satisfaction in this study measured based on the respondents' income and housing quality, along with their living style.The number of less or not satisfied constituted about 25 percent, while about 72 percent found to have moderate to very satisfy with their life.

Marital Status:
The study shows that more than 81 percent of the respondents are married, about 16 percent are unmarried, and only 2.5 percent are widowed.The rate of divorce here is too low, 0.6 percent.

Resident Type:
The respondents have about 54 percent record of living in their own house while about 46 percent living in a rented house.The study areas are residential and also mostly cities that have a higher level of expense rate.

Type of Household:
Even though the study was conducted on the city areas from where it is expected to have people live in buildings, a significant number of half Bricked buildings and also Tin made buildings found in the study.
About 55 percent of the respondents found to live in Concrete Building, 32 percent in Half Bricked, 11 percent in Tin made Building.

Living Area:
A majority of the respondents approached were living in residential areas, about 88 percent, while around 7.5 percent were living in the business or industrial areas, and only 4 percent of the respondents are living in slum areas.

Tenure:
The percentage of the respondents who are living at their residents is higher, which made their tenure period higher in the study.However, more than 74 percent of the total respondents found to live in their current location for more than five years were about 13 percent are staying at their location from 2 to 4 years, only about 5 percent have moved to their current location in less than a year.

Socio-Demographic Profile of the Victims
The total picture of the sample can be understood from the household data.Besides this, to get a more precise look into the victims' information, we have provided a brief description of the victims' demography here.
Firstly, the rate of women victimization is more than the male, as the data shows females constituted 53 percent and males 47 percent.The next question comes with their age.The study showed that the average age of the victims is about 36 years, where the minimum age considered for the study was 12, and the highest age of the victim was 86.The study also showed that about 60 percent of the victims were ranged from 20 to 40 years of age.People from 40 to 50 years aged also had a significant victimization rate (about 17 percent).
Bangladesh has Muslim domination on its demography, which also was represented in the study as it showed about 90 percent of the victims were Muslim.The victims' educational background is essential because it influences their consciousness about the crime environment around them as well as the propensity to not fall for prey to crime.However, a strong correlation has been observed here in the case of victims' education level and rate of victimization.It is found from the study that about 74 percent of the victims had a less than graduation level of educational background, where 31 percent had secondary to higher secondary certificate degree.People with a higher education level had a less victimization rate (post-grad about 11% and grad about 15 percent).Kamruzzaman (2016) has showed the similar sociodemographic of respondents that have a relationship with victimization.
In terms of occupation, homemakers had the highest number of victimization (about 37 percent), business people had the next higher rate (about 20 percent) followed by service holders (17 percent).
About 40 percent of the victims' income ranged from 10,000.00 to 20,000.00.The study also showed that people who have less than 40,000 taka as family income has a higher propensity to become the victim (about 77 percent).The data shows that people with a higher family income have a lower propensity to become a victim of crime.

 Summary of the Victims Demographic Information:
 59.4% of victims belonged to the age group 20 to 40 years.
 53% of women experienced victimization in their life.
 48.3% of the victims have completed the primary and secondary level of education.
 76.1% of the victims were married.
 48.1% of victims' monthly family income was below 20000 taka.Public perceptions towards police are pretty much important as it is for the police to create their image among the public.Police performance actually is the determinant of the public confidence in them.As a state-owned law enforcement agency, they are entrusted with the holy duty of maintaining the law and order situation and ensure the peace, which could help them earn public confidence in their activities and also get support.The rate of approaches towards police by the victims can come out through the following response.The victims, however, have a different experience as the nature of crime has also changed.The victims were asked whether they have reported to any legal institution about an incident that they might have thought of crime.

Current Prevalence of the
Out of 1246 respondents, about 74 percent (922) did not go to any institution for reporting, while only 26 percent (324 victims) approached for legal help.It merely denotes that the rate of the dark figure here is about 74 percent.The reasons for the non-reporting behaviour are also discussed in the following section in this report.The most common reasons given for not reporting crimes were that the incidents involved little loss or were too trivial for reporting, and some believed that there was nothing the police could do.However, compared to British and American victimization survey the rate of the dark figure of  As per the study findings, theft constitutes the highest number for victimization, where 79 percent of the theft victim did not report for it.Even though within the total type of crime, about 49 percent of the victim who did not report for the crime found out to be a theft victim.From a victimization survey, it has cleared that these personal crime are frequently happened with victim such as rape, robbery or theft by force, aggravated assault with injury, attempted aggravated assault with a weapon, simple assault with injury and attempted simple assault without a weapon (Smith and Donnermeyer1979).

6.3Reason for Non-Reporting of Crime:
The nature of crime in the preliminary report has been recorded as theft, which dominates the response on the victims reporting the behaviour.The study shows that most of the victims find reporting a case to the police as problematic, where they always wanted to avoid the inconvenience of calling the police (filling out a case, appear in court, and so on.),which they think as complicated legal procedure.A significant number of victims have the idea that police service requires a monetary contribution.Another significant number of people thought the crime as insignificant and not worth reporting.There are some other responses regarding police, which states that police behaviour is not friendly to reporting.A study has showed that the dark figure of crime is the gap between crimes reported in victimization surveys and crimes registered in administrative police records and the perception of corruption and the low confidence in the police are positively associated with the dark figure of crime ( Jaitman,.and Anauati, 2020) and the reporting and recording of crime depend on how often victims report to the police and how readily the police record (Langan & Farrington, 1998).

6.3.1Category the reasons for Non-reporting Crime:
Here in this study, it has found that about 44% of total respondents have added that they were unwilling to report crime because of distrust or lack of confidence regarding police or not to cooperate of police during filing case.On the other hand, 31% of respondents have said they were not interested to report crime because of procedural problem of existing criminal justice system.About 18% of total respondents have said they were determine not to reporting crime because of unwillingness of them, fear of secondary victimization and finally, 8% has added that they were thinking about the social perspectives of them and that's why they ignored to report this crime on that time.This research study on the dark figure of crime explored the reasons and perceptions of why people do not report crime.Most of the respondents have added that they because of petty crime, they were unwilling to report crime in police station.Other also said that, police demand bribery, not to assist them to filled in GD, fear of secondary victimization have influence them to unreported this case to police.
Here another important finding has found that is there is strong relationship between the socio demographic characteristics of victim and not to report the crime.Here, in this study, it has found that most of the victims are married women who are housewives and their family income is not much to bear a case easily, so they has showed reluctant to report case in police station.It also apparent that some were of the opinion that unreported crime does affect the criminal justice system in some way while others felt that it had more of an impact on the victims and the community themselves rather than the criminal justice system.From this a conclusion could be drawn that the dark figure of crime does to a certain extent impact the criminal justice system but also negatively impacts society in some form or another.
Now days it's becoming an issue to come to closer of law enforcement agency and build trust toward contemporary criminal justice system.So it's needed badly to take proper steps to resolve this issue.
Here in this study as it has found that the main reason of non reporting crime is inconvenience of calling the police, so it's needed firstly to make aware public about the importance of filling case.Therefore, besides public awareness the government should analyze things take appropriate remedial measures by considering the root causes of non reporting crime, and should making policy and applying the general public including victim of crime.From the study, it would be said, the government should focus on to remove the police corruption more specifically taking bribery during case filling, making police more cooperative and trustworthy, ensuring trust on traditional justice system, removing the social barrier to fill the case etc.So, in a word, it can be said that the government should more focus on making policy for reducing victimization in urban area in Bangladesh, which will solve the problem of non reporting crime nip in the bud.
figure of crime.2. To represent the current prevalence of the dark figure of crime in urban areas.3. To investigate the reasons of the dark figure of crime.4. To find out the causal relationship between socio-demographic of respondents and the types of non reported crime.

Factors
Figure: Factors influencing Dark Figure of Crime equal distribution of respondents into selected areas) Where n is the estimated minimum sample size z = the value of standardized normal variate = 1.96 at 95% confidence level p = Anticipated population proportion = 0.5 d = Absolute precision = 2% def = Design effect = 1.5

Dark Figure of Crime: 6 . 2 . 1
Public perception toward Dark Figure of Crime: crime is quite similar to US (71.3% in 2015 for property crime) where the property-related crime constituted the significant portion in this rate (see: British Crime Survey -Measuring crime for 25 years and Revised Report of US Criminal Victimization, 2015 in 22 March 2018).

6. 4 4 . 3 6 . 4 . 4 .
Relationship between Socio-demographic Information and Types of Crime: Cross Tabulation between Age and Types of Crime: Cross Tabulation between Marital Status and Types of Crime: