NCJ Number
145654
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 10 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1993) Pages: 395- 415
Date Published
1993
Length
21 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of victim and offense characteristics on the amount of time police detectives allocated to burglary and robbery investigations.
Abstract
Data were derived from an analysis of 292 robbery and 317 burglary investigative reports in a midwestern municipal police department and through 6 months of observation between September 1990 and March 1991. At the time of the study, the police department employed 245 sworn officers and 102 civilians. Quantitative results showed that offense characteristics were far more powerful predictors of time spent in burglary and robbery investigations than victim characteristics. Qualitative results revealed interaction and dependency effects among many victim characteristic variables and highlighted the complex calculus by which causal influences appeared in the decision behavior of police detectives. The dollar value of stolen property exerted the greatest effect on time spent in burglary and robbery investigations. Case characteristics accounted for less variance in burglary investigations than in robbery investigations. 42 references, 11 footnotes, and 2 tables