The Impact of Investigation Strategies and Tactics on Homicide Clearance

• Author: Charles A. LoFaso,William Terrill,Jesenia M. Pizarro
• Date: 01 February 2020
• Published date: 01 February 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/1088767918816741
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767918816741

Homicide Studies

2020, Vol. 24(1) 3 –24

© 2018 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/1088767918816741

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Article

The Impact of Investigation

Strategies and Tactics on

Homicide Clearance

Jesenia M. Pizarro1, William Terrill1,

and Charles A. LoFaso2

Abstract

This study examines whether changes made to the investigation procedures within the

Rochester Police Department’s homicide unit have an effect on homicide clearance

net of theoretically significant variables related to victim and police devaluation,

event characteristic, and victim lifestyle. It examines 132 homicides investigated by

the homicide unit over 4 years consisting of the pre-intervention period and post-

intervention period. It is hypothesized that investigation tactics will affect the odds

of clearance, even after controlling for other theoretically relevant variables. The

findings support this hypothesis, suggesting that the approaches and tactics police

departments implement within their investigative units are important.

Keywords

homicide, clearance, investigation, detectives

Introduction

The aftermath of a homicide event poses many negative consequences to the deceased’s

family, friends, and society as a whole. Homicide often results in psychological dis-

tress experienced by the victim’s family and friends (Armour, 2002). At the societal

level, some scholars estimate that the average cost per homicide is approximately

17.25 million dollars (DeLisi et al., 2010). When offenders are not apprehended, the

potential deterrent effect of sanctions is diminished (Braga & Dusseault, 2018) and

1Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

2The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jesenia M. Pizarro, Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State

University, Mail Code 4420, 411 N. Central Avenue, Suite 600, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA.

Email: Jesenia.Pizarro@asu.edu

816741HSXXXX10.1177/1088767918816741Homicide StudiesPizarro et al.

research-article2018

4 Homicide Studies 24(1)

police legitimacy may be undermined (Roberts & Lyons, 2011). This can result in an

increase of fear, legal cynicism, and self-help violent behaviors within communities

(Pizarro, 2017; Riedel, 2008; Roberts & Lyons, 2011). As a result, apprehending

homicide offenders, and clearing these cases, is of paramount importance to the police

and society.

In the United States, cases are considered cleared when the police arrest and charge

offenders with a criminal offense and turn them over to the court for adjudication, or

when exceptional circumstances such as the death of the offender preclude apprehen-

sion (Riedel, 2008). Nationally, clearance rates have declined from the 90% range in

the early 1960s to the 60% range presently (Braga & Dusseault, 2018). Studies that

have examined clearance often do so from the theoretical lens of victim devaluation

and event characteristics, and more recently by employing neighborhood processes to

measure police devaluation, as well as victim lifestyle explanations. While these theo-

retical perspectives have contributed to the literature, the examination of investigatory

policies as they relate to homicide clearance is comparatively rare. The present study

seeks to fill this void by examining the effect on clearance of investigatory strategies

and tactics implemented by the Rochester Police Department (RPD) in 2012.

Homicide Clearance Research

The bulk of research on homicide clearance has examined this issue from a victim

devaluation, event characteristics, police devaluation, and/or victim lifestyle theoreti-

cal lens. Victim devaluation, which is also known as discretionary or extra-legal per-

spective, has its roots in Black’s (1976) theory of the behavior of law. This perspective

posits that the amount of law one receives is a function of the social space one occu-

pies. As applied to homicide clearance, this approach is based on the assumption that

the police exercise discretion when investigating homicides based on extralegal char-

acteristics such as victim socioeconomic status and demographics (Riedel, 2008). As

a result, homicides are less likely to be cleared if the victim was a member of a group

with low social status because officers are not as motivated and do not put in the neces-

sary effort when investigating these cases.

Conversely, the event characteristics perspective, which is also known as the non-

discretionary or solvability perspective, posits that because of the seriousness and vis-

ibility of homicides, work group norms motivate investigators to work diligently and

aggressively to clear all cases, regardless of victim social status (Klinger, 1997; Riedel,

2008). According to this perspective, cases are not cleared due to event characteristics

that make homicides harder to investigate and clear. For instance, lack of witnesses,

firearm usage, gang and instrumental motives, and the location in which the homicide

incident takes place make the investigation process more difficult, and thus less likely

to be cleared.

Police devaluation focuses on the perceptions of community residents. According

to this perspective, the negative association between clearance rates and non-White

low socioeconomic status victims is more attributable to devaluation of the police as

effective agents for resolving conflicts, and not the devaluation of victims as posited