Effects of attachment, motivators, type of crime, and relationship to offender on willingness of third parties to provide names to law enforcement.
详细信息
文摘
This study looked at what factors affect an individual's willingness to provide a suspect's name to law enforcement if he or she recognized the person in a Crime Stopper-like ad. The factors studied were remaining anonymous, receiving a monetary reward, participant's attachment style, type of crime committed, and participant's relationship to the suspect. Three hundred participants were recruited for the study, and all completed the Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures (ECR-RS) attachment style survey, as well as the Willingness to Report Questionnaire (WRQ) in order to test the six hypotheses. Statistical analysis revealed a significant relationship between willingness to report and type of crime committed, relationship to suspect, attachment style of participant, and receiving motivator such as being able to remain anonymous or receive a monetary reward. This knowledge could help aid law enforcement in tailoring Crime Stopper advertisements to target those most likely to provide names to law enforcement, thereby increasing their public outreach effectiveness. Limitations to this study included using fictional vignettes, developing a new survey for this study, and males, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans being underrepresented in the study sample. Future research should examine the replicability of these findings, as well as attempt to gather real world data that do not depend on the use of fictive scenarios.