Homicide Process Mapping: Best Practices For Increasing Homicide Clearances
The United States has experienced tragic mass homicides such as Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado—that focus national attention on the crime. However, receiving much less national attention is the fact that on average there are more than 40 homicides occurring on a daily basis in the United States. This number surpasses the deaths that occurred in these horrific mass incidents. Although over the last several years the numbers of homicides nationwide have continued to drop, the numbers of victims still remain high (16,799 homicides in 2011) (Cooper and Smith, 2011). Moreover, another disturbing trend has emerged. While the frequency of homicides is decreasing, clearance rates have also dropped (to less than 65 percent on average); hence, fewer homicide offenders are being identified and arrested. Although the national clearance rate average has continued to drop, some individual law enforcement agencies have excelled in clearing homicides, with clearance rates of 80 percent and higher. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) wanted to understand how some agencies were...