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The Reporting and Underreporting of Rape

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  • W. David Allen

Abstract

A rape victim possesses a scarce resource: information about the crime. Thus, a victim's decision to report the crime to police, to allocate that resource, becomes an economic choice. A victim cannot receive social support or legal justice without revealing such information, but doing so creates real costs—social recrimination and lost privacy—with no guarantee of offender apprehension. This article explores the economics of the reporting and chronic nonreporting of rape in the context of this information‐allocation problem. The empirical analysis addresses the extent to which social‐support availability and evidentiary factors influence the reporting decision. Dichotomous and multinomial logit results, obtained using National Crime Survey data on a sample of rape victims, reveal how various demographic and crime‐specific factors explain the decision to report and the selection of specific reasons for not reporting. Some of these factors reflect circumstances addressable as matters of procedure or policy.

Suggested Citation

  • W. David Allen, 2007. "The Reporting and Underreporting of Rape," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(3), pages 623-641, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:73:y:2007:i:3:p:623-641
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2007.tb00793.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Rachel E. Lovell & Danielle Sabo & Rachel Dissell, 2022. "Understanding the Geography of Rape through the Integration of Data: Case Study of a Prolific, Mobile Serial Stranger Rapist Identified through Rape Kits," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-24, June.
    2. Patrick Reilly & Kamilah Williams & Monica Das, 2024. "The effects of Title IX enforcement on sexual assaults on college campuses," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(4), pages 705-721, October.
    3. Luis Chanci & Subal C. Kumbhakar & Luis Sandoval, 2024. "Crime under-reporting in Bogotá: a spatial panel model with fixed effects," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 66(5), pages 2105-2136, May.
    4. W. David Allen, 2024. "An Economic Analysis of Stalking," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 12(2), pages 200-224, August.
    5. Prarthna Agarwal Goel & Joyita Roy Chowdhury & Yashobanta Parida, 2022. "Can COVID-19 Lockdown Reduce Crimes Against Women? A District- Level Analysis from India," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 35(2), pages 216-247, July.

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