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Date: August 17, 2024 Sat
Time: 2:44 am
Time: 2:44 am
Results for clearance rates
4 results foundAuthor: Spohn, Cassia Title: Policing and Prosecuting Sexual Assault in Los Angeles City and County: A Collaborative Study in Partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Summary: We use quantitative data on the outcomes of sexual assaults reported to the LAPD and the LASD, detailed quantitative and qualitative data from case files for a sample of cases reported to the two agencies, and interviews with detectives and with deputy district attorneys to pursue five objectives: 1) to document the extent of case attrition and to identify the stages of the criminal justice process where attrition is most likely to occur; 2) to identify the case complexities and evidentiary factors that affect the likelihood of attrition in sexual assault cases; 3) to identify the predictors of case outcomes in sexual assault cases; 4) to provide a comprehensive analysis of the factors that lead police to unfound the charges in sexual assault cases; and 5) to identify the situations in which sexual assault cases are being cleared by exceptional means. We also identify the themes that emerged from our interviews with officials in each agency and with sexual assault survivors. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2012. 535p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 7, 2012 at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/237582.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/237582.pdf Shelf Number: 124016 Keywords: Clearance RatesPolice InvestigationsPolice PerformanceProsecutionSexual Assault (Los Angeles) |
Author: Kennedy, William Gregory Title: The Impact of Police Agency Size on Crime Clearance Rates Summary: The impact of police agency size on the ability of those agencies to deliver necessary police services is a question critical to many policy makers as they attempt to determine the best and most efficient manner to provide police services to their citizens. Over the years, there has been an ongoing debate as to the role of agency size and its effect on agency effectiveness. This study examines one element of that debate by looking at the role agency size plays on the ability of the agency to clear reported crime. The study hypothesizes that larger agencies are able to clear a larger proportion of reported crimes because larger agencies can take advantage of larger staff, greater resources and capitalize on other factors often associated with larger organizations. To conduct this analysis, the study develops a data set from LEMAS, UCR, and Census Bureau data that contains 2,271 local, county, and regional police and sheriffs’ agencies. Utilizing this data set, the study uses hierarchical regression to assess the impact of agency size on the clearance rates for seven UCR Part I crimes. The analysis controls for the effect of community demographics, agency structure, community policing tactics, and workload. The results of the analysis are mixed. For several crime categories, agency size dose not contribute significantly. However, for robbery, felony assault and vehicle theft, size is significant and has an inverse relationship to crime clearance rates. The finding that the clearance rates for robbery, felony assault and vehicle theft would decrease as agency size increases, is contrary to the study’s hypothesis. The study concludes with a discussion of possible reasons the size variable did not have the affect theorized, the implications of these findings, a discussion of the issues surrounding the effect of the control variables, as well as possible directions for future research. Details: Charlotte, NC: University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2009. 227p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed April 5, 2013 at: http://www.cpcc.edu/pd/resources-1/doctoral-research-group/dissertations/Kennedy-William-2009-PhD.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.cpcc.edu/pd/resources-1/doctoral-research-group/dissertations/Kennedy-William-2009-PhD.pdf Shelf Number: 128285 Keywords: Clearance RatesPolice Agencies (U.S.)Police EffectivenessPolice Resource Allocation |
Author: Curry, Philip A. Title: Crime, Apprehension and Clearance Rates: Panel Data Evidence from Canadian Provinces Summary: The Becker (1968) model of crime establishes the importance of the probability of apprehension as a key factor in a rational individual's decision to commit a crime. In this respect, most empirical studies have used U.S. data to study the effects of more police officers on crime rates. We add to the relatively thin literature on the impacts of clearance rates, which we think is an equally important measure of the probability of apprehension. Our data are drawn from a panel of Canadian provinces from 1986-2005. Reduced form and IV estimates yield statistically significant elasticities of clearance rates, ranging from -0.2 to -0.36 from violent crimes and from -0.5 to -0.6 for property crimes. We think that these findings reflect the importance of productivity of the police force in terms of solving crimes and the possibility that hiring of police officers will not necessarily result in lower crime rates. Details: Unpublished paper, 2013. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 19, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2336202 Year: 2013 Country: Canada URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2336202 Shelf Number: 135716 Keywords: Arrest and ApprehensionClearance RatesProperty CrimeViolent Crime |
Author: McEwen, Tom Title: Evaluation of the Phoenix Homicide Clearance Project. Volume 1 Summary: This report prepared by the Institute for Law and Justice, Inc. (ILJ) provides the results of an evaluation of the Homicide Clearance Project in the Phoenix, Arizona, Police Department. In 2004, the department received a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance providing support for the assignment of four crime scene specialists directly to the department's Homicide Unit. Responsibilities of the crime scene specialists were to collect evidence at homicide scenes, prepare scene reports, develop scene diagrams, and other supportive activities. Prior to the project, homicide investigators were responsible for evidence collection, which reduced the time they could devote to investigations. The primary objective of the Homicide Clearance Project was to improve homicide clearance rates by increasing investigative time through the addition of the four crime scene specialists. ILJ evaluated the Homicide Clearance Project under a grant provided by the National Institute of Justice. As described in this report, the evaluation consisted of process and impact assessments of the project. Because of the excellent cooperation of the Phoenix Police Department, ILJ expanded the evaluation to conduct research on several other aspects of homicide investigations, including an analysis of investigative procedures for closed cases, a summary of obstacles faced in solving open cases, a comparison of homicide characteristics in Phoenix with other research studies, a detailed breakdown of evidence collected at homicide scenes, and a review of the role of forensic evidence in homicide investigations and trials. Transfers of the four crime scene specialists were effective on July 1, 2004. The crime scene specialists were assigned to two of the four investigative squads within the homicide unit. They began on-the-job training immediately upon their transfers by accompanying investigators to scenes and observing the collection and storage of evidence. The training proceeded quickly because they were familiar with homicide scenes and because they generally knew departmental procedures from their years of experience in the crime laboratory. By September 2004, the crime scene specialists were able to handle homicide scenes with minimal supervision from investigators, and they had learned how to prepare scene reports documenting the evidence. Prior to the grant, the role of crime scene specialists was limited to photographs and latent prints. Investigators were responsible for evidence collection. Investigators marked each item of evidence, placed the evidence in appropriate evidence containers, transported the evidence to headquarters, and turned the evidence over to the property room. They later prepared scene reports that described the evidence collection process and provided details on each item of evidence collected (type of evidence, description, exact location, etc.). Assignment of crime scene specialists to the unit was seen as a way to relieve a considerable amount of workload from investigators. The decision to assign the four crime scene specialists to two of the four squads provided an opportunity to compare performance between the two pairs of squads. As with other investigative units, the primary performance measure was homicide clearance rates-the percentage of cases that homicide investigators solve. The hypothesis was that the squads with crime scene specialists would do better than the other squads compared against their performance prior to the grant project. In theory, investigators in the experimental squads would have more time for investigations, which in turn would lead to higher clearance rates. The comparison squads would continue to operate as in the past with investigators having responsibility for evidence collection and with crime scene specialists assigned to take photographs and dust for latent prints. With the Homicide Clearance Project, the Phoenix Police Department was also testing whether crime scene specialists could work effectively within the environment of the homicide unit. It was the department's first test for assigning civilian personnel from the crime laboratory to an investigative unit. The crime scene specialists reported to supervisory personnel who headed the experimental squads. The department also wanted to be sure that the four crime scene specialists were capable of preparing the same quality of scene reports that homicide investigators produced. The evaluation addressed both these objectives. Details: Alexandria, VA: Institute for Law and Justice, 2009. 105p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 16, 2015 at: http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/EvalReport_Volume_I.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/EvalReport_Volume_I.pdf Shelf Number: 136776 Keywords: Clearance RatesCrime Scene InvestigationCriminal InvestigationsHomicidesPolice Investigations |