Only 35% of Crimes Reported in ‘83, Survey Finds

Despite police efforts to encourage citizens to fight crime, only 35% of an estimated 37.1 million crimes attempted and completed nationwide in 1983 were reported, according to a survey released Sunday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The bureau, a branch of the Justice Department, said victims were more likely to report crimes if they suffered substantial property loss or physical injury. The 35% reporting ratio was little changed from its first crime survey, made in 1973, which found that “about two-thirds” of personal and household crimes went unreported.

Both studies used a sampling method to estimate the extent of crime, as compared with the number of crimes reported: 12.9 million in 1983, the last year for which complete figures are available. The twice-yearly survey asks 128,000 individuals from a selected sample of 60,000 households if they have been the victims of crime within the preceding six months and, if so, to provide details.

Element of Safety

Steven R. Schlesinger, director of the statistical bureau, noted the increase in recent years of citizen participation in police-sponsored neighborhood watch programs and observed that reporting of crimes is an essential element of neighborhood safety.

“If crimes are not reported, they remain hidden from the system that was established to deter wrongdoing,” Schlesinger said. “Hidden crime is insidious because you cannot fight it.”

The survey found that 48% of an estimated 6 million violent crimes--robbery, assault and rape--were reported to police. It noted that 37% of 16.4 million “household crimes”--burglary, larceny and auto theft--and 26% of about 14.6 million thefts, involving pocket picking, purse snatching and nonviolent larceny, were reported.

When asked why they had failed to notify authorities, 34% of the victims of unreported crimes indicated that the incident was not serious enough to report. The study said that only a few of the victims cited fear of reprisal as an important reason for their failure to tell police.

According to the survey, victims were more likely to report completed crimes than attempts, especially in cases of robbery, burglary and car theft.