need to lock up their house, car, or other property. He leaves his vehicle, house, and garage unlocked in Colorado 
because of that mindset. However, they live in a large, populous part of Colorado in a suburb outside Denver. Most 
people do not know the neighbor three doors down. One morning he woke up to his truck gone! The first thing 
he did was realize he left the keys in the truck and the truck was unlocked (normal to him). Next, he decided to 
take a walk to look for it before phoning the police. He located the truck, and it was damaged. It appeared that kids 
took it for a joy ride, as evidence from the beer cans and odor. He chose not to call the police. Why? He was happy 
the property had was located, yet he believed ‘it was his fault,’ and he had to get to work. Is this type of reaction 
more common than we may think? 
A friend of mine was a victim of domestic violence for over nine months and never told anyone, especially police. 
Her boyfriend was only presented as perfect, loving, and romantic on social media and around people. When she 
did come forward, it was after she landed in the emergency room due to him assaulting her. People may initially 
think domestic violence victims would always call the police, but there are so many reasons people do not come 
forward. 
When victims of crime do not report, or police are not made aware of a crime these crimes go uncounted in the 
official statistics. They become part of the ‘dark figure of crime‘ that we will learn about throughout this section. 
2 
Some Reasons People May Not Report 
3 
1. The victim may not know a crime occurred 
2. The offender is a member of the family, a friend, or an acquaintance 
3. The victim thinks it is not worth reporting 
4. The victim may fear retaliation 
5. The victim may also have committed a crime 
6. The victim does not trust the police 
 
2. Biderman, A., & Reiss, A. (1967). On exploring the "dark figure of crime." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 
Science. 374(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271626737400102 
3. Brantingham, P., & Brantingham, P. (1984). Patterns in Crime, New York: Macmillan. 
ALISON S. BURKE, DAVID CARTER, BRIAN FEDOREK, TIFFANY MOREY, LORE RUTZ-BURRI, AND SHANELL
SANCHEZ
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