Consequences Of Unreported Crimes
1) The Ripple Effect: negative consequence
• the analogy of how an object being thrown into water causes ripples across it’s
surface is used to describe how unreported crime does not always only effect it’s
primary victim, but can rather spread out throughout society
*Examples:
• children that are victims to sexual and/or domestic abuse are likelier to commit
these crimes along with others, possibly while they are still children and also
when they become adults, which keeps crime rates high
*Statistics:
• Working Chance found that almost 2 in 3 women in prison are victims of
domestic abuse
2) Cultural Consequences: negative consequence
• some crimes that are unacceptable under UK law may be commonly practised
within different cultures, communities and societies, which means that these
crimes will continue to be committed by all the generations to come
*Examples:
• honour crime will have extremely negative consequences if left unreported,
due to the violent and dangerous nature of the crime, which can consist of
mutilation or murder
*Statistics:
• it has ben estimated that 5000 honour killings occur a year
3) Decriminalisation: positive consequence
• some common aspects of society that are viewed as regular, everyday tasks
are actually acts that go against the law; this leads to these crimes being
decriminalised in the eyes of the public, and then the government are left with
no other choice to but to decriminalise it in terms of the law
• decriminalisation will reduce the number of violent crimes that happen during,
for example, drug trades and saves money that would have otherwise been used
to prosecute offenders
*Examples:
• smoking cannabis
• underage drinking/sex
*Statistics:
• in the UK, there is an estimated number of 313,971 drug users between the
ages of 15 and 64
4) Legal Change: positive consequence
• some countries are beginning to legalise acts from the past that were deemed
as criminal, due to for example a reduce in stigma towards these crimes, which
has a positive impact because a lower amount of unconcerning crimes which
most people view as human rights, means the police have more time to focus on
1) The Ripple Effect: negative consequence
• the analogy of how an object being thrown into water causes ripples across it’s
surface is used to describe how unreported crime does not always only effect it’s
primary victim, but can rather spread out throughout society
*Examples:
• children that are victims to sexual and/or domestic abuse are likelier to commit
these crimes along with others, possibly while they are still children and also
when they become adults, which keeps crime rates high
*Statistics:
• Working Chance found that almost 2 in 3 women in prison are victims of
domestic abuse
2) Cultural Consequences: negative consequence
• some crimes that are unacceptable under UK law may be commonly practised
within different cultures, communities and societies, which means that these
crimes will continue to be committed by all the generations to come
*Examples:
• honour crime will have extremely negative consequences if left unreported,
due to the violent and dangerous nature of the crime, which can consist of
mutilation or murder
*Statistics:
• it has ben estimated that 5000 honour killings occur a year
3) Decriminalisation: positive consequence
• some common aspects of society that are viewed as regular, everyday tasks
are actually acts that go against the law; this leads to these crimes being
decriminalised in the eyes of the public, and then the government are left with
no other choice to but to decriminalise it in terms of the law
• decriminalisation will reduce the number of violent crimes that happen during,
for example, drug trades and saves money that would have otherwise been used
to prosecute offenders
*Examples:
• smoking cannabis
• underage drinking/sex
*Statistics:
• in the UK, there is an estimated number of 313,971 drug users between the
ages of 15 and 64
4) Legal Change: positive consequence
• some countries are beginning to legalise acts from the past that were deemed
as criminal, due to for example a reduce in stigma towards these crimes, which
has a positive impact because a lower amount of unconcerning crimes which
most people view as human rights, means the police have more time to focus on
