Criminology › Issues and Challenges
A person sees two young men in front of their neighbor's house and assumes they are "horsing around" until they break a window and begin to burglarize the home. After seeing this the person calls the police. This would be an example of which of the following?
Ambiguity delay
Coping delay
Conflict delay
Traffic delay
None of these
This scenario is considered to be an "ambiguity delay." It is considered to be an ambiguity error because the person was delayed in their ability to acknowledge a criminal act. They thought that the two young men were "horsing around" later they saw them break into the house; thus, they were delayed by the ambiguous nature of the behavior of the young men.