Physical Violence Against Children Reported to the Police: Discrepancies Between Register-Based Data and Child Victim Survey

• Published in: Violence and victims Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 257 - 268
• Main Authors: Kuoppamäki, Sanna-Mari, Kääriäinen, Juha, Ellonen, Noora
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Springer Publishing Company 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Adult; Assault; Behavioral Sciences; Child; Child Abuse; Child Abuse - legislation & jurisprudence; Child Abuse - psychology; Child Welfare - legislation & jurisprudence; Child Welfare - psychology; Children; Children & youth; Cooperative Behavior; Counseling; Crime Victims - psychology; Crime Victims - statistics & numerical data; Criminal investigations; Families & family life; Female; Finland; Finland - epidemiology; Humans; Male; Marriage and Family Counselling; Methodology (Data Collection); Parent-Child Relations; Police; Police - statistics & numerical data; Policy, Social Justice, and Human Rights; Population Surveillance - methods; Psychology; Regression Analysis; Residence Characteristics; Sex Factors; Social and Personality Psychology; Social networks; Social Perception; Social Responsibility; Social Work; Socioeconomic Factors; Teenagers; Victimization; Victims; Violence; Violent crime; Finland; child victimization; child victim survey; police-reported data; reporting of a crime
• ISSN: 0886-6708; 1945-7073
• DOI: 10.1891/0886-6708.26.2.257

This study examines the reporting and not reporting of child victimization to the police. The study focuses on comparing the police reports of child victimization to the Finnish Child Victim Survey (FCVS) to find out the kind of violence that is reported to the police and the kind that is not. A total number of 242 police reports of 12-year-old victims of physical violence were collected from the Finnish Police Information System. These reports were compared to the 12-year-old children's victimization experiences in the FCVS. Discrepancies between these two data can be found in the victim's gender, the relationship between the victim and the suspect, and the location of the assault. Physical violence against girls committed by mothers is not reported as often as physical violence against boys committed by men.