Cycles of Silence

Police-Citizen Cooperation in Communities with Criminal Groups

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10187003
AutoresAmy Chasteen Miller (0000-0001-5634-9699, United States Naval Academy, autor de correspondencia), Andrew Cesare Miller
Año2025
Volumen88
Número2
Páginas479-492
Fecha de publicación2025-02-19
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/735455
OpenAlexW4407733741
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas42

Many states struggle to provide justice for victims of violent crime, partly due to criminal groups preventing citizens from sharing information with the police. Cycles of silence theory posits that criminal groups constrain witness information-sharing by making community norms favoring cooperation with the police appear weaker to citizens than they are. This article tests the theory in the markets of Lagos, Nigeria, where shopkeepers are exposed to violence by “area boy” crews. According to survey results, shopkeepers perceive that fewer witnesses would share information with the police than are willing to do so, and as a result, the average witness is predicted to share significantly less information than they would have if they were aware of the latent strength of cooperation norms. A virtual reality vignette embedded in the survey shows that rendering a crime reporting tip line anonymous and creating awareness of other shopkeepers cooperating can increase witness information-sharing.

Art · Criminology · Political science · Silence · Sociology · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses