Dissertation
Crime victims and the police
On 1 February 2018 Nathalie-Sharon Koster defended her doctoral thesis ‘Crime victims and the police’. The doctoral research was supervised by Professor J.P. van der Leun and M.J.J. Kunst.
- Author
- Nathalie-Sharon Koster
- Date
- 01 February 2018
- Links
- Leiden University Repository
Firstly, the findings reveal that crime victims are not only interested in receiving fair treatment, but also in the investigative activities that the police may perform to solve their case. Both are important to them, because it makes them feel that they and their case are being taken seriously.
Secondly, the findings reveal that evaluations of police response have important consequences for both perceived police legitimacy and willingness to cooperate with the police. Negative evaluations of police response, particularly concerning a lack of investigation activities, could have detrimental effects. This applies especially to victims of violent crimes who know their offender. As a consequence, some of them may not only be reluctant to cooperate with the police, but also develop feelings of vigilantism. To prevent repeat crime victims from evading the criminal justice system it is, therefore, of utmost importance that the police avoids negative evaluations as far as possible.