Personal reasons
● Fear - Scared of the consequences of reporting
● Shame - May feel embarrassed or shameful or vulnerable
● Disinterest - People may not care or even realise it’s a crime
● Not affected by crime - Not personally affected
Social and cultural reasons
● Lack of knowledge - Not knowing about crimes or how to report them
● Complexity - Not understanding the crime
● Lack of media interest - News outlets don’t find the crime ‘interesting’ enough
● Lack of current public concern - Not threatening enough to the public to report
● Culture-bound crime - Links to a particular culture
AC1.2 Write-Up
Hate crime is unreported due to multiple reasons. Specifically, one personal reason would be
fear as the victims could be scared of the perpetrator that might have threatened them to
harm the victim or their friends/family. Another personal reason could be shame as they
might feel embarrassed to admit to being emotionally abused by perpetrators. A social and
cultural reason could be a lack of knowledge due to not knowing how to report hate crimes.
Another social and cultural reason could be complexity as some people may be uneducated
and might not understand what is being said to them is actually offensive such as racial
slang terms.
Moral crime goes unreported quite a lot as it is so common. A personal reason could be
disinterest as moral crime victims tend to be the perpetrators and the public aren’t bothered
as they mind their own business. Another personal reason could be not affected by crime as
a lot of moral crimes that are committed don’t affect the public as a lot of it happens behind
closed doors. A social and cultural reason could be the lack of current public concern as
things like prostitution aren’t a threat so will go unreported, as well as most women admiring
it as a job. Another social and cultural reason could be a lack of media interest as moral
crimes like underage drinking can be seen as small crimes compared to murders and may
be seen as not ‘interesting’ enough to be publicised by news outlets.