The effect of time to report and severity on judgments of victims

Victims of crimes may delay reporting the crime. The current research examines the effects of crime severity and delayed reporting on perceptions of victims and their accusations. In two studies, adults were recruited from an online platform. In study 1, participants ranked the severity of different crimes and their ideal delay in reporting that crime. As perceived severity increased, the participant’s ideal delay for victims reporting decreased. In study 2, participants read about a high severity crime (sexual assault) or a low severity crime (theft) that the victim either reported after a short delay (30 min) or a long delay (3 years). Longer delays in reporting decreased victim credibility and increased endorsement of alternative explanations compared to shorter reporting delays for a low severity crime, but not a high severity crime. Longer delays decreased accusation believability for low and high severity crimes compared to shorter delays, but the effect was stronger for low severity crimes. We found that alternative explanations mediated the effect of reporting delay on victim credibility for low severity, but not high severity crimes. In addition, we found women were more likely to believe victims, while justice beliefs were related to less belief in victims and higher severity perceptions.