Clearing Murders: Is It About Time?
This study uses data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to explore the impact of model selection on determining the association of victim-level and incident-level factors to the likelihood of homicide clearance. We compare both traditional operationalizations of clearance rates as well as the time to clearance as dependent variables in examinations of correlates of solvability in homicide cases. Using a different approach than most other analyses of this problem, the results affirm the consistency of some effects but also reveal some important differences when the aspect of time is factored into the model. Implications for analyses of efficiency and effectiveness of police response to homicide, cold-case analyses, and other strategies for solving crime are discussed.
In recent years crime rates have fallen from the historic highs of the late 1980s. However, crime clearances have fallen over the years as well (see Figure 1). In fact murder clearances were as high as 94 percent in 1961 and currently are at about 62 percent...