Investigative Resources and Crime Clearances: A Group-Based Trajectory Approach

Past studies of crime clearance rates have largely ignored the role of investigators in the process. This omission is important because criminal investigation is essential to clearing crimes, particularly those in which offenders are not readily identifiable. Using data from 570 law enforcement agencies spanning a 13-year period from 2000 to 2012, this study developed group-based trajectories of violent and property crime clearance rates (an approach not taken in previous clearance rate research), then modeled group membership with two measures of investigative spending and one of the proportion of investigators in sampled agencies (“investigative resources”), while controlling for factors such as workload and crime type. Results from a series of multinomial regression models suggest investigative resources play only a marginal role in crime clearance trajectories. This finding is consistent with early detective research, including the classic RAND criminal investigative process study.