NCJ Number
179357
Date Published
1999
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This presentation discusses how police can increase clearance rates, especially for homicide cases.
Abstract
There has been very little research into clearance rates for homicide cases; most research has involved burglary and robbery. Study of clearance rates in homicide cases is made more difficult by the terms of the Supplemental Homicide Report, which forces police to select one “most important” factor about a case and contains nothing about what the police should do. Another difficulty is the variance among police organizations about what constitutes clearance of a case. For purposes of this study cleared meant that a warrant had been issued for a specific individual and s/he had been taken into custody. The study identified 250 significant variables among homicide investigations, including 14 that could lead to clearance, including whether or not the victim was a gang or drug organization member, whether the victim was white or Hispanic (as compared to African-American), and what type of weapon was used. Twenty-eight other variables involved things over which the police had control, such as how many detectives were assigned to the case, time elapsed before their arrival at the scene, and first responder activities. Implications for policing and for research include: (1) policing matters; (2) first responder interaction with follow-up procedures needs to be better understood; (3) technology can make a difference; (4) use of research can help establish solvability of cases; and (5) clearance of homicide cases could benefit from incorporation of data from other non-homicide cases, e.g., vice and drug data. The presentation was followed by a brief question-and-answer session.