Less than half (42%) report any violent crime of threatened or real force, such as physical assault, battery, or weapons offenses.
[6][14] As a consequence of social rejections and insensitivities to acknowledging trauma or violence, individuals are increasingly apt to continue not reporting.
[19][12][20] One incident that attracts much controversy in the criminal justice system is reporting violent crimes on one's intimate partner.
Women who report rape by an intimate partner are seen as less credible by the system and law enforcement are more likely to encourage dropping the case.
[8] Societal standards of obeying an intimate partner and thus encompassing rape culture are prevalent in the criminal justice system.
[8] Although it is a legal crime that is being reported, victims are often turned away feeling alienated, hopeless, and unworthy and have limited options for resources beyond the system.
[21][17][12] In her work, Campbell explains how molecular changes occur in response to trauma, and how this can influence discrepancies in victims’ reports and recollections of the event.
[24][21] During the time law enforcement personnel gather information about the event, they could be met with victims explaining their stories inconsistently due to a fragmented memory.
Either by a neurobiological change or psychological response to particularly distressing trauma, victims may fall prey to the inability to coherently portray details of the event, thus taking away credibility and facilitating secondary victimisation.