Living in the Margins: Assessing Police Engagement as a Form of Victim Help-Seeking Through Legal Estrangement

This paper offers one attempt to move police reporting literature into help-seeking contexts. The current study uses the legal estrangement framework to examine complex victim help-seeking decisions, in the form of police engagement, for individuals living in impoverished neighborhoods with high vio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nguyen, Thuy-Trinh (Author)
Contributors: Roman, Caterina Gouvis
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
In: Victims & offenders
Year: 2024, Volume: 19, Issue: 4, Pages: 613–640
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
Help-seeking
Reporting
Victimization
legal estrangement
police interaction
Description
Summary:This paper offers one attempt to move police reporting literature into help-seeking contexts. The current study uses the legal estrangement framework to examine complex victim help-seeking decisions, in the form of police engagement, for individuals living in impoverished neighborhoods with high violent crime rates in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A thematic analysis was applied to semi-structured interviews and found help-seeking is a dynamic process. Among victims of color, the legal estrangement framework contextualizes the landscape of help-seeking decisions, while other socio-ecological and situational characteristics simultaneously influence help-seeking behaviors. Concepts of procedural injustice, vicarious marginalization, and structural exclusion are reflected in both help-seekers and non-help-seekers.
ISSN:1556-4991
DOI:10.1080/15564886.2023.2214808