NCJ Number
227435
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2009 Pages: 174-188
Date Published
May 2009
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the question of whether divergent homicide case outcomes were influenced by various aspects of the case.
Abstract
Results suggest that although some incident and victim characteristics have a similar impact on the odds of clearing a case by arrest or exceptionally and/or do not distinguish between the two forms of clearance, there are a number of factors that influence the clearance categories differently. Homicides of females are more likely to result in exceptional clearances. These cases likely involve women murdered by intimate partners who then kill themselves. The finding that homicides are more likely to be exceptionally cleared than cleared by arrest when they involve older offenders may reflect cases of elderly couples who enter into a pact to end their lives together. Exceptional clearances are less likely than arrest clearances to involve contact weapons or other weapons, or alternatively, they are more likely to involve firearms. Many of these cases involve the death of the offender, some of which are likely to be murder-suicides committed with guns, facilitating the desire of the perpetrator to end their own life as part of the incident. Cases of offenders killed by the police or in retaliatory violence by other offenders are also likely to involve guns. Results show that compared to family related homicides, acquaintance and unknown victim/offender relationship homicides are more likely to be cleared by arrest than exceptionally. Data were collected from the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Tables, notes, and references