What drives adolecents’ reporting behavior?
In their new study, Anna Hahnemann, Leonie Dreißigacker, and Merten Neumann examine the factors that influence adolescents’ decisions to report crime in Germany – and the role played by the extent of harm, social context, and individual victim characteristics. Based on our 2022 student survey (n = 1,612), the study uses conditional inference forests and logistic regression to identify key predictors of reporting behavior 📊
The findings show that the extent of physical harm is the strongest factor increasing adolescents’ willingness to report a crime. Other relevant factors include the type of offense, subjectively perceived harm, and whether the perpetrator was known to the victim.
The study provides important insights into the decision-making processes behind adolescents’ reporting behavior and highlights which factors matter when we seek to better understand why crimes are – or are not – reported.
🔗 Read the article: The study provides important insights into the decision-making processes behind adolescents’ reporting behavior and highlights which factors matter when we seek to better understand why crimes are – or are not – reported.
🔗 Read the article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1068316X.2026.2703655
