BA Criminology student receives UK Data Service Dissertation Award

One of the students of the BA Criminology short dissertation pathway has received one of the three UK Data Service Dissertation Awards 2023. These awards celebrate undergraduate dissertations based on the use of archived data available through the UK Data Service.

The focus of Aiste Timukaite’s dissertation was on how a victim’s attitudes towards the police influence their perceptions of the costs and benefits associated with reporting violent crimes to the police. Using data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, the dissertation examined how the reporting of violent crime to the police is associated with attitudes towards the police as well as demographic and situational characteristics. 

Through a series of binary logistic regression models, the analysis found no evidence that the decision to report victimisation is influenced by a victim’s trust in police effectiveness. However, factors such as the presence of a weapon and injury to the victim are important predictors of violent crime reporting, as well as sex and age.

Drawing on the results, Aiste proposes the need for further efforts to promote reporting amongst male and younger victims. The dissertation also stresses that while the analysis identified victim and situational characteristics associated with reporting crime to the police, they only accounted for a small fraction of the variation in violent crime reporting. 

Therefore, she argues further research is needed to explore broader contexts that impact victims’ cost-benefit considerations of violent crime reporting. Timukaite’s dissertation was supervised by Dr David Buil-Gil.