Who Reports Crime? Citizen Engagement with the Police in Russia and Georgia

Europe-Asia Studies, Forthcoming

48 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2014 Last revised: 27 Feb 2020

See all articles by Lauren A. McCarthy

Lauren A. McCarthy

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Scott Gehlbach

University of Chicago

Timothy Frye

Columbia University - Department of Political Science

Noah Buckley

Trinity College (Dublin); National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

Date Written: February 26, 2020

Abstract

What factors affect citizens' engagement with the state? We explore this question through a study of victims' and bystanders' willingness to report crimes to the police, using data from survey experiments conducted in Russia and Georgia. We find that citizens' willingness to report in both countries is strongly influenced by the nature of the crime, but not generally by instruments that the state might use to encourage greater reporting. Our results recommend skepticism about the ability of governments to easily engineer engagement with the state.

Keywords: police, crime reporting, state, survey experiments, Russia, Georgia

JEL Classification: K42, P26, P48

Suggested Citation

McCarthy, Lauren and Gehlbach, Scott and Frye, Timothy and Buckley, Noah, Who Reports Crime? Citizen Engagement with the Police in Russia and Georgia (February 26, 2020). Europe-Asia Studies, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2464171 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2464171

Lauren McCarthy

University of Massachusetts Amherst ( email )

Department of Political Science
Amherst, MA 01003
United States

Scott Gehlbach (Contact Author)

University of Chicago ( email )

1101 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

Timothy Frye

Columbia University - Department of Political Science ( email )

MC3320
420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
United States
212-854-3646 (Phone)

Noah Buckley

Trinity College (Dublin) ( email )

D2
Ireland

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow) ( email )

Myasnitskaya street, 20
Moscow, Moscow 119017
Russia

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