Published In
European Journal of Policing Studies
Document Type
Pre-Print
Publication Date
10-2024
Subjects
Crime reporting -- Oregon
Abstract
Police are more likely to be perceived as legitimate when officers are procedurally just during interactions with the public (i.e. impartial, transparent, fair and respectful). Efforts to reinforce these skills have largely focused on contacts initiated by officers. Less attention has been paid to interactions with crime victims. Moreover, in recent years many police departments have sought to increase efficiency by directing victims to report online, rather than communicating directly with an officer. Very little is known about how victims experience online reporting systems. This study surveyed 1,198 property crime victims who used a large US police department’s online reporting portal. The primary objective was to evaluate the online reporting system using a procedural justice lens. One out of eight respondents said the agency’s online system was difficult to use, and just 16.7% were satisfied with the agency’s handling of their online report. Bivariate and multivariate analyses are used to identify factors associated with satisfaction, and qualitative data are used to document the specific problems victims encountered while using the online portal. Recommendations for improving online reporting are provided, including a discussion of enhancing procedural justice in technology-mediated police communications.
Rights
© Copyright the author(s) 2024
Locate the Document
https://doi.org/10.5553/EJPS.000011
DOI
10.5553/EJPS.000011
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42584
Citation Details
Henning, Kris; Kahn, Kimberly; Wuschke, Kathryn; Peterson, Christian; and Yakots, Stephen, "Online Crime Reporting: A new threat to police legitimacy?" (2024). Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations. 123.
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42584
Description
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published as: Online crime reporting: A new threat to police legitimacy? European Journal of Policing Studies.