Abstract
The reporting of crime as victims and witnesses has important implications for police effectiveness in crime prevention, crime control, and community safety. However, some groups, for example, immigrants (otherwise referred to as foreign-born individuals), may feel less obligated to report crimes to the police. While there is a growing body of literature on a wide range of immigrant populations’ willingness to report criminal activities to the police in New York City as victims and witnesses, conspicuously absent from the scholarly literature is research on Caribbean immigrants’ willingness to report crime to the police. Relying on a sample of thirty-seven (n = 37) Caribbean immigrants from five areas in the New York City who were recruited using non-probability sampling, this study examined Caribbean immigrants’ willingness to report crime as victims and witnesses as well as factors that affect their willingness to report criminal activities to the police. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that a great majority of the participants were willing to report crime to the NYPD. However, that willingness was fettered by several factors (seriousness of the crime, fear, and safety concerns). Five major themes emanated from the participants’ narratives (safety concerns, fear, seriousness of the crime, civic duty, and attitudes of police officers), and these are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
As this study is qualitative, no data are available due to the personalized nature of the interviews.
References
Armenta A, Rosales R (2019) Beyond the fear of deportation: understanding unauthorized immigrants’ ambivalence toward the police. Am Behav Sci 63(9):1350–1369. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219835278
Barranco RE, Shihadeh ES (2015) Walking ATMs and the immigration spillover effect: the link between Latino immigration and robbery victimization. Soc Sci Res 52(July):440–450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.03.003
Becerra D, Wagaman MA, Androff D, Messing J, Castillo J (2017) Policing immigrants: fear of deportations and perceptions of law enforcement and criminal justice. J Soc Work 17(6):715–731. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017316651995
Black D (1976) The Behavior of Law. Academic Press
Bolter J, Israel E, Pierce S (2022) Four years of profound change: immigration policy during the Trump presidency. Migration Policy Institute
Braun V, Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual Res Psychol 3(2):77–101
Bucher J, Manasse M, Tarasawa B (2010) Undocumented victims: an examination of crimes against undocumented male migrant workers. Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice 7:159–179
Comino S, Mastrobuoni G, Nicolò A (2020) Silence of the innocents: undocumented immigrants’ underreporting of crime and their victimization. J Policy Anal Manage 39(4):1214–1245. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22221
Corbin J, Strauss A (2008) Basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, 3rd edn. Sage
Correia ME (2010) Determinants of attitudes toward police of Latino immigrants and non-immigrants. J Crim Just 38:99–107
Creswell JW (2014) A concise introduction to mixed methods research. Sage
Davis RC, Henderson NJ (2003) Willingness to report crimes: the role of ethnic group membership and community efficacy. Crime Delinq 49(4):564–580. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128703254418
Davis RC, Hendricks NJ (2007) Immigrants and law enforcement: a comparison of native-born and foreign-born Americans’ opinions of the police. Int Rev Vict 14(1):81–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/026975800701400105
Dedoose (8.0.35) (2018) Web application for managing, analyzing, and presenting qualitative and mixed method research data. Sociocultural Research Consultants, LLC. https://www.dedoose.com/
Delvino N, González Beilfuss M (2021) Latino migrant victims of crime: safe reporting for victims with irregular status in the United States and Spain. Am Behav Sci 65(9):1193–1205. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221996773
Fieldwork (2023) Data collection and analysis of data. Author
Gibson CJ, Jung K (2006) Historical census statistics on the foreign-born population of the United States: 1850 to 1990. Working Paper No. 81, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC
Greenberg MS, Ruback RB (1992) After the crime: victim decision making. Plenum Press
Guest G, Bunce A, Johnson L (2006) How many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods 18:59–82
Gutierrez CM, Kirk DS (2017) Silence speaks: the relationship between immigration And the underreporting of crime. Crime Delinq 63(8):926–950. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128715599993
Han S, Hwang E, Nobles MR, Basham SL, Piquero AR (2020) Immigrants’ confidence in the police in 34 countries: a multilevel analysis. Police Q 23(1):106–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611119883424
Kayaalp A (2015) Creativity for the leaders of future. J Mil Inf Sci 3(3):100–103
Khondaker MI, Wu Y, Lambert EG (2017) Bangladeshi immigrants’ willingness to report crime in New York City. Polic Soc 27(2):188–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2015.1040795
Kidd RF, Chayet EF (1984) Why do victims fail to report? The psychology of criminal victimization. J Soc Issues 40(1):39–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1984.tb01081.x
Kittrie OF (2006) Federalism, deportation and crime victims Afraid to call the police. Iowa L Rev 91:1449–1508
Landis JR, Koch GG (1977) The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 33(1):159–174. https://doi.org/10.2307/2529310
Lorenzi J, Batalova J (2022) Caribbean immigrants in the United States. Migration Information Source. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/caribbean-immigrants-united-states
Maxwell JA (2005) Qualitative research design (2nd Ed.). Sage
Menjivar C, Bejarano C (2004) Latino immigrants’ perceptions of crime and of police authorities: a case study from the Phoenix metropolitan area. Ethn Racial Stud 27(1):120–148
Messing JT, Becerra D, Ward-Lasher A, Androff DK (2015) Latinas’ perceptions of law enforcement: fear of deportation, crime reporting, and trust in the system. Affilia 30(3):328–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109915576520
Muchow AN, Amuedo-Dorantes C (2020) Immigration enforcement awareness and community engagement with police: evidence from domestic violence calls in Los Angeles. J Urban Econ 117:103253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2020.103253
Neuman WL (2006) Social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. Pearson
Özaşçılar M, Narli N, Öztürk O (2019) Crime reporting behavior among Syrian immigrants in Istanbul. Crime Delinq 65(14):1997–2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128718807157
Pelias RJ (2011) Writing into position: strategies for composition and evaluation. In: Denzin NK, Lincoln YS (eds) The SAGE handbook of qualitative research, 4th edn. SAGE, pp 659–668
Reina AS, Lohman BJ, Maldonado MM (2014) “He said they’d deport me”: factors influencing domestic violence help-seeking practices among Latina immigrants. J Interpers Violence 29(4):593–615. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260513505214
Robertson ON, Adelman RM (2019) Race, ethnicity, and the American criminal justice system: the perceptions and experiences of West Indian men. Race and Justice 9(4):434–453. https://doi.org/10.1177/2153368717705961
Shaw R (2012) Caribbean immigrants’ perception of crime in New York. Master’s Thesis. Monroe College
Silverman D (2006) Interpreting qualitative data: a guide to the principles of qualitative research, 5th edition. SAGE
Skogan WG (1984) Reporting crimes to the police: the status of world research. J Res Crime Delinquency 21:113–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224278840210020
Tight M (2023) Saturation: an overworked and misunderstood concept? Qual Inq. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004231183948
U.S. Census Bureau (2010) American Community Survey 5-Year Data 2010 (2006–2010). https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year/2010.html
U.S. Census Bureau (2020) 2019 American community survey. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 11.0. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Vaughan JM, Camarota SA, Zeigler K (2021) Are immigrants less willing to report crime? Data from the national crime victimization survey says “no.” Center for Immigration Studies
Vidales G, Day KM, Powe M (2009) Police and immigration enforcement. Policing Int J Police Strat Manag 32(4):631–653. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510911000740
Wachholz S, Miedema B (2000) Fear, risk, harm: immigrant women s perceptions of the “policing solution” to woman abuse. Crime Law Soc Chang 34:301–317
Wu Y, Sun IY, Smith BW (2011) Race, immigration, and policing: chinese immigrants’ satisfaction with police. Justice Q 28(5):745–774. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2010.535009
Xie M, Baumer EP (2019) Crime victims’ decisions to call the police: past research and new directions. Annu Rev Criminol 2:217–240. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024748
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the thirty-seven Caribbean foreign-born individuals in New York City who willingly participated in this study, without whom this article would not have been possible. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the two Caribbean-based NGOs in New York City who assisted me by putting me in contact with their members.
Funding
No funding was received in pursuit of this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Consent to Participate
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict of Interest
The author declares no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wallace, W.C. Caribbean Immigrants’ Willingness to Report Crime to the Police in New York City. J Police Crim Psych (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-024-09653-2
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-024-09653-2