1. Understanding Victim Cooperation in Cases of Nonfatal Gun Assaults
- Author
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Natalie Kroovand Hipple, Beth M. Huebner, Kristina J. Thompson, and Lauren A. Magee
- Subjects
genetic structures ,education ,050901 criminology ,05 social sciences ,Criminal case ,social sciences ,Criminology ,humanities ,Pathology and Forensic Medicine ,Police investigation ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,0509 other social sciences ,Psychology ,Law ,health care economics and organizations ,General Psychology ,050104 developmental & child psychology ,Gun violence - Abstract
Victims play a central role in criminal case processing, but research suggests many victims do not report crimes to police or cooperate in a police investigation. This study extends the literature on victim cooperation by examining the effect of incident-level variables and neighborhood characteristics on victim cooperation in nonfatal shooting incidents. The sample includes 1,054 nonfatal shooting victims from two Midwestern cities. Results using binary logistic regression suggest that incident and victim characteristics are significantly associated with cooperation, but race conditions the effect of injury severity and motive on cooperation. The willingness to cooperate among Whites is contingent on injury severity while non-White victims do not become markedly more cooperative when confronted with serious injury. Race also moderates the relationship between crime motive and cooperation. This work demonstrates the need to incorporate nonfatal firearm violence into studies of victim cooperation and gun crime more broadly.
- Published
- 2019
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