Homicide Investigations in Context: Exploring Explanations for the Divergent Impacts of Victim Race, Gender, Elderly Victims, and Firearms on Homicide Clearances

• Published date: 01 February 2020
• Author: Ashley Mancik,Wendy C. Regoeczi,John Jarvis
• Date: 01 February 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/1088767918802885
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767918802885

Homicide Studies

2020, Vol. 24(1) 25 –44

© 2018 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1088767918802885

journals.sagepub.com/home/hsx

Article

Homicide Investigations

in Context: Exploring

Explanations for the

Divergent Impacts of Victim

Race, Gender, Elderly Victims,

and Firearms on Homicide

Clearances

Wendy C. Regoeczi1, John Jarvis2, and Ashley Mancik3

Abstract

Studies examining factors influencing homicide clearances have produced consistent

findings for child victims, arguments, and incident location. Conclusions have been far

more varied regarding the social location of the victim and incident attributes such as

firearms. Using homicides reported to the National Incident-Based Reporting System

(NIBRS) between 2008 and 2012, the current study uses Conjunctive Analysis of Case

Configurations (CACC) to analyze combinations of victim and incident attributes

most likely to lead to cleared homicides. In doing so, we assess the variable impacts

of victim gender, race, elderly victims, and firearms across contexts to understand

their inconsistent effects in the prior literature.

Keywords

NIBRS, methodology, clearance, policing, investigation, solvability, conjunctive analysis

Introduction

Over the last several decades, a growing body of literature has emerged that has sought

to understand what factors influence the likelihood that homicides will be solved. For

example, researchers have applied Black’s theory of the Behavior of Law (Black,

1Cleveland State University, OH, USA

2Federal Bureau of Investigation, Quantico, VA, USA

3University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA

Corresponding Author:

Wendy C. Regoeczi, Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology, Cleveland State

University, 2121 Euclid Avenue, RT 1725, Cleveland, OH 44115-2214, USA.

Email: w.regoeczi@csuohio.edu

802885HSXXXX10.1177/1088767918802885Homicide StudiesRegoeczi et al.

research-article2018

26 Homicide Studies 24(1)

1970, 1976, 2015) to explain crime clearances using the assertion that police devalue

certain victims. That is, characteristics related to a victim’s social location account for

some of the variation in clearance outcomes. According to this perspective, victims of

lower social standing receive less law (e.g., lower likelihood of clearance). Applying

this theoretical model within the homicide clearance literature has led researchers to

test the impacts of victim demographics, including gender, race, and age, on the likeli-

hood of case clearance.

Alternatively, others have argued for a legal factors approach, or that the incident,

rather than victim characteristics, is more salient in impacting the likelihood of homi-

cides being cleared. Specifically, Klinger (1997) argues that legal factors associated

with the incident and the underlying offense, rather than extralegal factors, dictate

case outcomes. Following this notion, case characteristics such as the use of a fire-

arm, the location of the incident, and the circumstances of the altercation impact the

availability of evidence, dictating the ensuing police action more than the character-

istics of the victim.

Although less theoretical than the extralegal or legal factors approaches, research-

ers have also attempted to capture the more practical side of investigations that may

impact clearance outcomes, considering the role of police training and resources, offi-

cer caseload, advancements in technology and forensic capabilities, and the like (e.g.,

Baskin & Sommers, 2010; Carter, 2013; Hawk, 2015; Jensen, 2003; Keel, Jarvis, &

Muirhead, 2009; McEwen & Regoeczi, 2015; Schroeder & White, 2009).

Drawing on one or more of these perspectives, researchers have used various

local and national datasets to build a set of findings that provide insight into what

types of cases are easiest and/or quickest to clear primarily in terms of the character-

istics of the victim, incident, and occasionally, police resources and the broader

community. Among the more consistent findings in the clearance literature is that

homicides committed with contact weapons (i.e., weapons that bring the victim and

offender into close contact with each other such as fists, knives, or blunt instru-

ments) increase the likelihood of clearing the case (Addington, 2006; Mouzos &

Muller, 2001; Puckett & Lundman, 2003; Roberts, 2007). In addition, felony- and

drug-related homicides have been found to have lower clearance rates (Cardarelli &

Cavanagh, 1994; Lee, 2005; Litwin, 2004; Mouzos & Muller, 2001; Regoeczi &

Jarvis, 2013; Regoeczi, Kennedy, & Silverman, 2000; Riedel & Rinehart, 1996;

Rinehart, 1994; Roberts, 2007), and homicides occurring indoors are more likely to

be cleared (Addington, 2006; Litwin, 2004; Litwin & Xu, 2007; Mouzos & Muller,

2001; Wellford & Cronin, 1999).

The consistency of the findings with respect to contact weapons, circumstances, and

offense location across studies lends significant credibility to the existence of these pat-

terns and support for the legal factors approach. What is perplexing is the variability of

findings with respect to the role the victim’s social location plays, particularly victim

gender, race, and age (specifically when it comes to elderly victims). In addition to the

inconsistent findings regarding victim characteristics, the impact of at least one incident

characteristic also varies substantially in the literature—firearms.