Most burglary victims do not file police report: study

In the wake of a much-discussed online video on house burglary, which was uploaded by a victim reportedly mistrustful of the police, a study reveals that only 30 percent of burglary victims in Indonesia filed reports with the police.

The study, which was made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, is called “The World Justice Project: Rule of Law Index 2010”.

It surveyed 1,000 respondents in Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung and found that six percent of the respondents experienced home burglary from Sept 2006 to Sept 2009. The study also showed that only 30 percent of the burglary victims reported to the police.

BINUS University forensic psychology expert Reza Indragiri Amriel said the study confirmed the impression that public trust in the police kept dropping. “Many think that reporting a crime to the police does not necessarily lead to a solution. Instead, the victims could be ‘re-criminalized’,” he said.

“The study shows what is called ‘public cynicism’ regarding the police due to the declining trust in the force. The Jakarta Police have recently released decreasing crime statistics. Apparently, it was merely because fewer people were willing to file reports with the police,” he said.

Reza added that the study was ironic given the fact that the Indonesian police still prioritized law-enforcement measures over public security and services.

According to the study, Indonesia also only scored 0.4 (in a 0 – 1 scale) in the Access to Civil Justice indicator, the lowest among seven surveyed nations in the East Asia and Pacific region as well as among 12 surveyed nations in the lower-middle income category.

Among the total of 35 nations surveyed by the study, Indonesia was ranked 32nd.