The Dark Figure of Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean

Laura Jaitman () and Victoria Anauati
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Laura Jaitman: Ministry of the Treasury of Argentina
Victoria Anauati: Ministry of the Treasury of Argentina

Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2020, vol. 3, issue 1, No 5, 76-95

Abstract: Abstract The dark figure of crime is the gap between crimes reported in victimization surveys and crimes registered in administrative police records. This paper quantifies the dark figure of gender-based violent crimes through a systematic comparison between official crime figures and victimization surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean over 2004–2014. We find that the dark figure of gender-based violent crimes is between 92 and 95% in comparison with a dark figure of between 63 and 80% in developed countries. This means that in the region, around 5 out of every 100 crimes are found in administrative police records. The dark figure of gender-based violent crimes is similar to that of extortion and kidnapping, but it is significantly greater than the dark figure of assaults and robberies of vehicles (65 and 52%, respectively). Our results show that the perception of corruption and the low confidence in the police are positively associated with the dark figure of crime through the channel of under-reporting and that the dark figure of gender-based violent crimes is greater in rural areas. These findings provide evidence of a potential bias in administrative police data and the need for policies aimed at reducing under-reporting, in particular for gender-based violent crimes.

Keywords: Dark figure of crime; Gender-based violence; Reporting; Police; Victimization; K42; O10; O17; O57; Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s41996-019-00042-0

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