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Unsolved Homicides

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 Journal of Security Education

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Unsolved Homicides

Janet McClellan

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 Unsolved Homicides:
What We Do and Do Not Know
Janet McClellan

ABSTRACT. In 1960 when the homicide rate in the United States

was 9,110 the clearance rate stood at 92% (FBI, 1997), accounting for
the clearance of 8,382 murders (Harris, Thomas, Fisher, & Hirsch,
2002; Regoeczi & Miethe, 2003; Litwin, 2004). Unfortunately, by 2002
the reported number of homicides solved and cleared by arrests had
dipped to 62% (FBI, 2002). The unsolved rate in 2002 in the United
States represented a 76% increase since 1960. The increase in unsolved/
uncleared homicide offenses has grown during the last 45 years in spite
of the advances in investigative technologies, educational and training
enhancements for investigators, and operational emphasis by law en-
forcement agencies towards community policing. The article explores
issues and inferences from current research regarding reasons for the
decline in the past decades in the solving of homicides in the United
States. doi:10.1300/J460v02n03_05 [Article copies available for a fee from
The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address:
<[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com>
© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Homicide rates, clearance rates, research, literature re-

view, discretionary and non-discretionary factors, solvable homicides,
homicide patterns, investigative practices

Janet McClellan is a PhD candidate at Northcentral University in Arizona and As-

sistant Professor with SUNY Canton in the Criminal Investigation Department. She
has an extensive background in public service including her roles as police officer, po-
lice chief, investigator, corrections official, and chief executive of the Kansas Violent
Sexual Predator Maximum Security Facility.
Journal of Security Education, Vol. 2(3) 2007
Available online at http://jse.haworthpress.com
© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1300/J460v02n03_05 53
54 JOURNAL OF SECURITY EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

In 1960 when the homicide rate in the United States was 9,110, the
clearance rate stood at 92% accounting for the clearance of 8,382 mur-
ders (Harris et al., 2002; Regoeczi & Miethe, 2003; Litwin, 2004). Un-
fortunately, by 2004 when the reported number of homicides had
dipped to 16,204 from a peak in 1993, the solved rate had also dipped to
62%, or 10,046 murders were solved, thereby leaving 6,158 unsolved
and uncleared. From 1993 to 2002, murder arrests fell by 40.9%.
Arrests of juveniles were 64.3% less than the 1993 figure, and arrests of
adults were 36.3% less. The 10-year trend also revealed that arrests of
males for murder were down by 41.5%; arrests of females were 35.5%
lower than arrests of females for murder in 1993 (FBI, 2002).
If we can extrapolate a bit, in 1960 the number of unsolved/uncleared
homicides totaled 728 victims and by 2004, the number of unsolved ho-
micides per year had increased to 6,167, signaling a ninefold increase in
unsolved murders. Using the 1960 unsolved rate of 728 and the offense
rate of 9,100 to compare the 2004 unsolved rate of 6,158 and the offense
level of 16,204, an unusual picture emerges. The 9,110 homicide of-
fenses in 1960 are equal to 56.2% of the homicides committed in 2004
(16,204). If solved rates had remained steady, the number of unsolved
in 2004 would have been 1,138, rather than the actual recorded figure of
6,167. Therefore, the unsolved rate in 2004 represents a 76% increase
in the number of unsolved/uncleared homicides in the United States
since 1960. Although some homicides are solved within five-to-ten
years following their initial report, the fact remains that the increase in
unsolved/uncleared homicide offenses during the last 45 years permits
thousands of murderers to remain free and unaccountable for their
crimes.
The article explores issues and inferences from the most current re-
search of (Borg & Parker, 2001; Lee, 2005; Litwin, 2004; Puckett &
Lundman, 2003; Regoeczi et al., 2000; Regoeczi & Miethe, 2003) re-
garding the analysis and potential reasons for the increase in unsolved
homicides over past decades in the US.

THE LITERATURE

From the historical literature (Black, 1976; Riedel, Zahn, & Mock,
1985; Silverman & Kennedy, 1997; Sampson & Groves, 1989; Petee et al.,
2001; Blau & Blau, 1982; Messner, 1987, 1986; Messner & Sampson, 1991)
 Janet McClellan 55

a set of concerns associated with the plunge in the solvability and there-
fore homicide clearance rates in the United States emerges. These con-
cerns underscore the features of the sources and explanations of the
decline in homicide solvability in the US. The five dominant features
are as follows:

• A change in the nature of homicide–specifically, who commits

murders, victim targeting, motives, and the relationship between
the victim and the offender;
• The reduction in police investigative effectiveness;
• The emergence of a more complicated collection of social and cul-
tural factors in the United States;
• The existence of law enforcement officer and organizational deci-
sion-making dynamics that create opportunities for the decline in
solvability of criminal homicide; and/or
• Unevenly applied investigative efforts by law enforcement associ-
ated with the demographics and status of the victim.

The factors cited by several researchers (Black, 1976; Riedel, Zahn, &
Mock, 1985; Silverman & Kennedy, 1997; Sampson & Groves, 1989;
Petee et al., 2001; Blau & Blau, 1982; Messner, 1987, 1986; Messner &
Sampson, 1991) to be significantly associated with the decline of homi-
cide solvability are categorized as discretionary and non-discretionary
factors. Discretionary factors include elements of a particular homicide
event, such as the victim, community, and victim status believed to im-
pact the investigators deliberation and associated investigative activi-
ties. More specifically, discretionary factors are those features which
may influence the efforts, assumptions, and decision- making processes
of the officer in the investigation of the offense. Non-Discretionary fac-
tors include those features about the case and investigative processes
over which the investigator has no control and which are historically as-
sociated with unsolved homicides.
Discretionary factors indicating victims and conditions strongly as-
sociated with unsolved homicides are as follows:

1. Victims were male

2. Non-White victims
3. Persons aged 19 and older
4. Persons of lower socio-economic status
5. Persons residing in communities lacking socio-economic status/
stability
56 JOURNAL OF SECURITY EDUCATION

6. Persons with lower educational levels (less than high school)

7. Persons who engage in risky behaviors or alternative lifestyles
including criminal behavior, prostitution, gay-transgender-trans-
sexual persons, gang involvement, narcotics and drug abuse or
trafficking, runaways, and other socially marginalized persons, and
8. Misidentification or misclassification of the cause of death by
officials.

Non-discretionary factors, indicating features under which unsolved

homicides are more likely to involve the following:

1. Remote locations (not in a residence)

2. The use of firearms in the commission of a murder
3. The murder occurred during the commission of another felony
offense

The findings of more recent research on the analysis and determi-

nation of factors affecting the American homicide clearance rate appear
in several research works (Borg & Parker, 2001; Lee, 2005; Litwin,
2004; Puckett & Lundman, 2003; Regoeczi, Kennedy, & Silverman,
2000; Regoeczi & Miethe, 2003) and constitute a continuation of the
questions posed in the previous historical research. The issues affecting
homicide clearance appear to remain the same and may additionally
reflect a significant additional cause for the ever increasing downward
trend in homicide solvability.

A Review of the Current Homicide Clearance Research

Regoeczi et al. (2000) cited four major factors responsible for the
decline in the homicide clearance through their analysis of Supplemen-
tal Homicide Research (SHR) data based on 341,369 cases occurring
between 1976 and 1992. Their research noted that the factors having
the greatest negative effect on the homicide solvability included cases
where (1) the perpetrator used a firearm; (2) there was a contaminant
felony; (3) the victim was over 12 years of age; and (4) the victim
was from an ethnic, racial, or cultural minority.1 Therefore, the research
found significant agreement with the several non-discretionary fac-
tors in homicide solvability. Additionally, in their study Regoeczi
and Miethe (2003) found that urban locations (populations over
100,000) provided an additional factor which negatively impacted
the homicide clearance rate. They found that in urban locations those
 Janet McClellan 57

offenses involving unknown relationship homicides exhibited unique

patterns of characteristics resembling neither acquaintance nor stranger
cases.2 The dominant profiles in both unknown and known relationship
(offender-to-victim relationship) solved homicides involved a lone Black
male victim under the age of 30 who was killed with a firearm.3
By comparison, Borg and Parker (2001) found support for several ef-
fects of discretionary factors. Those discretionary factors included the
specifics that (1) victims in unsolved homicide generally had lower
socio-economic status; (2) the victims lived in communities that lower
in their general socio-economic status within the region; (3) the com-
munities exhibited greater inhabitant mobility or transience; and (4) the
communities expressed a general distrust of law enforcement.4
In 2003, Puckett and Lundman researched and reviewed 802 ho-
micides in Columbus, Ohio, that occurred between 1984 and 1992.
Their findings provided for some opposition and conflict with those
expressed in the Regoeczi et al. (2000) research. Puckett and Lundman
(2003) indicated in the results of their research that unsolved homi-
cides were not more likely to involve persons of lower socio-economic
status, race, or ethnicity5 than persons in middle and upper-middle
socio-economic status who were Caucasian in instances associated with
domestic-violence murder and where a knife or firearm was used.
However, this research found that the odds of clearing a homicide in-
creased as the age of the victim increased up to age 10 and then demon-
strated a remarkable decrease for all ages thereafter6 in all instances not
associated with a domestic-violence homicide event. Additionally, any
weapons used that increased the proximity or contact of the offender
with the victim frequently resulted in the presence of physical evidence
that would aid in the clearance of the homicide in domestic-violence-as-
sociated homicide except in non-domestic-violence-associated homi-
cides where the use of a firearm or any weapon adversely affected the
solvability factor in murder investigations.7 Their analysis of solvable
homicides would lead to the conclusion that domestic-violence ho-
micides generally enjoy a greater solvability, unaffected by discre-
tionary investigative activities, while non-domestic-violence homicides
are much more prone to the effects of discretionary factors and
decisionmaking.
Finally, Puckett and Lundman (2003) found that neither the work-
load/caseloads nor the experience levels (years of service, familiarity,
and training) of the investigating officers had any impact on the
solvability or clearance probability of a homicide.8 Therefore, in the
study, the novice detective performed as well as the seasoned investigator
58 JOURNAL OF SECURITY EDUCATION

and the overworked solved cases as well as those whose caseloads were
not so demanding. The finding would appear to indicate that the organi-
zational nature, workload, or individual ability of an officer had little to
do with homicide clearance further accentuating the effects of discretion-
ary factors influencing homicide solvability. Moreover, the research
would additionally appear to raise questions about the affectability of
education, training, and experience effecting investigative efficiencies.
Litwin (2004) conducted an examination of 2,224 homicides in
Chicago, Illinois which occurred between 1989 and 1991 to analyze the
effect of discretionary and non-discretionary factors on homicide clear-
ance rates. Some of the significant finding of the study were: that female
victims were no more likely to have their homicides cleared by arrest
than the male ones; that the race or ethnicity of the victim did not have
any bearing on the clearance rate, except for Latino victims who were
more than 2.5 times less likely to have their murders cleared/solved;9
“The odds of a case with an older victim (over 10 years of age) de-
creased by about 1.01 times for each additional year of age”10 and there-
fore the older the victim the less likely the homicide was cleared/solved.
Additionally, homicide victims in the Litwin (2004) study who had
prior criminal histories were equally likely to have their cases remain
unsolved as those victims having no criminal history.11 However, homi-
cide cases victims found inside a residence were more likely to be
solved12 with that link was strongly associated with domestic homicides
in the data. In the instances of homicide in which a firearm or other
weapon was used, the presence of such a weapon adversely affected the
solvability factor by a factor of 2.5 and the homicide clearance rate was
further reduced when the offense occurred in conjunction with a con-
taminant felony.13 Homicide cases of unknown circumstances involv-
ing general altercations did not more often involve persons of lower
socio-economic status14 but those that did were significantly less likely
cleared by arrest.
Litwin (2004) additionally found that unsolved homicides were not
affected by a community’s or neighborhood socio-economic instability
or population transity.15 However, neighborhoods that experienced
greater homeownership levels also enjoyed a greater homicide solved/
cleared ratio or rather, the higher the ratio of home ownership, the
greater the homicide solved rate.16
As in the study conducted by Puckett and Lundman (2003) the Litwin
(2004) research also found that the workload of homicide investigators
did not affect the homicide clearance rate.17 The findings led (Litwin,
2004) to the conclusion that the changing nature of homicide and not the
 Janet McClellan 59

rate or demographics of a community accounted for the significant fac-

tors adversely affecting the clearance rate of homicides in the United
States.18
Lee (2005) conducted research involving the homicide solve rate in
Los Angeles County, California, involving 9,442 homicides that had
occurred between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 1994. In focusing
the study on the discretionary factors previously established as having
adverse affects on homicide clearance rates, Lee (2005) found that in
Los Angeles County, only 47% of homicides occurring between 1990
and 1994 had been cleared by mid-year of 1996.19 The research found
that the cases most likely to be solved included those that involved
(1) White victims–42% greater solve rate rather than Non-White vic-
tims; (2) female homicide victimization–more than 30% more likely to
be solved; (3) for victims aged 0-19–and decreasing significantly there-
after; (4) victims murdered by their spouse or partner–solved at the rate
of 59%; and (5) the solve rate was greater for instances of homicide
which involved multiple victims serial, mass, or spree murders.20 Of
special note, Lee’s research found that homicide cases involving vic-
tims who had greater legal, social, or economic status did not increase
the likelihood of the case being solved.21
White victims of homicide were more likely to have their murder
solved faster than the non-White ones, and in cases involving female
victims under the age of 19, those murders were solved more quickly22
than those involving males or persons of either gender over age 19. In
the analysis, homicides involving firearms use in homicides or gang-re-
lated homicides indicated a solve rate of 60% and 64%, respectively,23
thus approaching the national average of the 65% overall solve rate for
homicides in the United States in 1995.24 This partially dispels the myth
of difficulties associated of gang-related homicides, particularly in Los
Angeles.
Lee (2005) established that in cases where the murderer was a stranger,
the solve rate was reduced dramatically for all homicide victims,25 and
in cases involving a spouse, estranged spouse, significant other, family
member or friend, the solve rate increased by 59%,26 regardless of the
victim’s demographic identification.
In summary, the Lee (2005) study provided additional support for the
studies conducted by Borg and Parker (2000), Litwin (2004), Puckett
and Lundman (2003), Regoeczi, Kennedy, and Silverman (2000) and
Regoeczi and Miethe (2003) as well as the historical research regarding
significant factors affecting homicide solve rates. The contemporary
and historical research underscores the series of features that present
60 JOURNAL OF SECURITY EDUCATION

sources and explanations for the decline in homicide solvability and

clearance rate in the United States over the last 45 years. Those features
are: (1) a change in the nature of homicide, specifically, who commits
murders, victim targeting, motives, and the relationships, (2) the exis-
tence of law enforcement officer and organizational decision-making
dynamics that create opportunities for the decline in solvability of crimi-
nal homicide, and/or, (3) unevenly applied investigative efforts by law
enforcement associated with the demographics and status of the victim.

SOLVABLE HOMICIDES AND SOLVABILITY THEMES

So, what is solvable according to the literature reviewed? More im-

portantly, what is the nature of homicides that are more difficult to solve
or categorized as unsolvable?
Descriptively, those homicide offenses that are most likely to be
solved involve a non-ethnic, non-racial or non-cultural minority person,
youths under the age of 18 and most often under 10, and victims of a
domestic violence/homicide. Conversely, homicide offenses that are
least likely to be solved involve victims who are over 10 years of
age; members of an ethnically, racial, or cultural minority, having low
socio-economic status,27 victims residing in communities or neighbor-
hoods predominantly transient in nature; homicides wherein a weapon
was used, in cases involving a weapon (any weapon and not exclusively
firearm); cases involving a contaminant felony (rape, robbery, theft,
sexual assault); and where the assailant had no known relationship with
the victim (stranger/non-relative).

The Nature of and Transformation of Homicide Patterns

When the offender had a recognized or identifiable relationship with

the victim, and where the murder and body of the deceased were located
within a residence, homicide cases are generally and readily solvable.
Such homicides are indicative of victim-offender identifiable relation-
ships and essentially describe the act of murder among persons who
have significant interpersonal relationships. However, a primary factor
influential in the reduction of the solve rate ratio for homicide in the
United States is the significant reduction and decline of homicides com-
mitted by family members over the last 30 years. By way of example, in
1976, family-related homicides accounted for 27% of all homicides
 Janet McClellan 61

committed, whereas in 2002 family-related homicides accounted for

11% of all homicides committed in the United States (US Bureau of
Justice Statistics, 1995-2002). Therefore, homicides perpetrated by
family members and other relatives have historically been less difficult
to clear/solve than homicides involving more distant or unknown rela-
tionships and the increase of unknown/stranger-related offenses may be
presumed at this juncture to signal a significant additional factor in the
ongoing reduction of homicide solvability in the United States.
Within the literature, past and contemporary, there emerge two inter-
locking themes associated with and influencing the 45-year plummet in
homicide clearance rates in the United States. These themes raise the
specter that the decline in homicide solvability and clearance indicates a
strong association with:
1. A change in the nature of homicides committed, and
2. The nature and character of law enforcement investigative efforts
and practices
The review of the current research in issues related to the reduction of
homicide clearance rates indicate a number of specific themes asso-
ciated with the solvability problems of homicide investigation and the
nature and character of law enforcement investigative efforts. Those
themes find support in the empirical research regarding causations in
the reduction of homicide clearance rates in the United States. The
changes and change in the nature of the US social systems and social re-
alities are the focus in the following sections.

THE CHANGING NATURE OF HOMICIDE

IN THE UNITED STATES

The Nature of Changes in the United States:

An Overview

In the United States, shortly after the end of World War II, there
were significant changes in the nature, culture, and conditions of the
nation.28 During the late 1940s and 1950s, in most instances, families
were established, children were born, and the pursuit of non-violent/
non-war-associated economic industries emerged. During that same
period, a national interstate highway transportation system was estab-
lished, there was a far-reaching expansion of the public education sys-
tem to the booming population, the suburbs were born, the agrarian base
62 JOURNAL OF SECURITY EDUCATION

decreased, whole new communities emerged, and old communities and

urban centers grew. Additionally, a subsequent increase in wages and
expendable cash spurred national growth, the mobile society, a diversi-
fied workforce, and higher educational level attainment by citizens was
achieved in much of the country.29 Change embraced every dimension
of the social, economic, and cultural environment.
The baby-boomers and echo-boomers were ultimately born into,
shaped by, and partook in an America more affluent, mobile, and di-
verse than their parents might have dreamed. They were raised in a pe-
riod frequently touted as offering unprecedented opportunities, a period
that was also a time of unprecedented changes. In that same thirty-year
period social change emerged from and was affected by the Korean
War, the Civil Rights Movements, Women’s Rights Movement, and the
Vietnam War, diversity, accommodation, adjustment, and disruption
central to the social and cultural waves from the 1950s through the
1980s. The country did not/ could not retain the sibilance of and/or illu-
sion of homogeneity and uniformity that had preceded it. Americans
moved out, moved on, and moved up or just moved away from the roots
of much of their social and cultural past. However, some things change
more slowly than others and not all change is evolutionary or direc-
tional. Some things change in fits and starts, advancing and receding,
haltingly as they are resisted by the conventions of comfort, tradition,
and preferred expectations.
During the same period of historical change, law enforcement faced
an increase in the number of homicides primarily associated with rob-
bery, and other felony-related offenses. Standard street-gang crime, a
significant effect of social and racial divides and recent immigration
emerged in the 1960s as a means of establishing social, economic, and
racial equality.30 Shifts in public opinion, the cultural/social wars of
the period, and other uncertainties complicated the tasks of law en-
forcement. The country was changing but the preparedness of law
enforcement, historically conservative in its organization and member-
ship who frequently aspire to be middle class, were slow to respond to
the changing landscape of crime. As a social control agency, it was to
respond to the then emerging complexion and complexities of the new
American society.
Adding to these complexities, American law enforcement faced
a change in the nature of offenders as the number and type of offenses
and rate of recidivism rose. In 1965 the recidivism31 rate was 57% by
1983, the rate was 65.5%, and in 1994, the rate had increased to 67.5%
 Janet McClellan 63

(U.S. Bureau of Prisons, 2002). The nature of crime and offender were
changing and they continue to change. By way of further example,

Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 States in 1994,

an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious mis-
demeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4%
resentenced to prison for a new crime. (Bureau of Justice Statis-
tics, June 2002, NCJ 19342, p. 1)

Fortunately, during the last 45 years, advances in the technologies of

forensics and criminal investigation became equally progressive. How-
ever, the advances may beg the results. In the 1960s, before the intro-
duction of DNA testing, advanced fingerprint technologies, regional
and national databases, computerization of information, the lengthening
of officers training in academies, and the push for more officers with
some college education, the homicide clearance rate in the 1960s was
over 95%. Interestingly, by 2005 and after those same advances and
technological improvements occurred, the national homicide clearance
rate average stood at 62% and is considered as further declining during
2006 and beyond.
With all the progress in technological equipment something appears
to be amiss and two questions are most pressing. Could the past prac-
tices of homicide investigation that were successful in a vanished era in
which most homicides were committed by intimates (spouses, couples,
friends, relatives, and associates) still be the predominant practiced
paradigm of homicide investigative processes and therefore part of the
problem? Are there features of that paradigm that are counterproductive
in the current social and cultural setting where unknown offenders and
strangers as victims account for the majority of persons involved in
homicides? Therefore, do we need or need to use more appropriate and
sophisticated models for homicide investigative practices that work in
the twenty-first century rather than harkening back to practices and as-
sumption which died after WWII? Could such a paradigm, model, or set
of models improve our abilities to successfully investigate and conclude
homicide investigations successfully through clearance and solution?
To put a fine point on the questions, a call went out over ten years ago
for the need to examine staid and standard practices of homicide investi-
gation. To date, little has changed, the call has yielded few examina-
tions and little in the manner of substantive practical applications since
Keppel and Wies (1993) first raised their concerns.
64 JOURNAL OF SECURITY EDUCATION

THE NATURE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

INVESTIGATIVE PRACTICES

Keppel and Wies (1993) noted a number of interlocking problems

with research associated with criminal investigation and homicide in-
vestigation in particular.32

Prior research has not focused on the processes, procedure, and

factors that characterize the investigation of murder . . . studies
typically rely on aggregate-level data or, at the other extreme,
clinical case-studies, neither of which are very informative regard-
ing the control of murder. The logical steps necessary to follow the
clues that are found during the formative stages of a murder inves-
tigation are not specified or analyzed . . .

Therefore, to paraphrase Keppel and Wies (1993), the key to solving

homicides is to understand the information, understand that it is not the
same in every instance, to take what is available, and organize, and
make it useful. That process takes more than hunches or habits and it
apparently takes more than collecting and analyzing evidentiary items
by the lab. The complete practice of investigation requires the linking of
information from the initially discovered scene, the related scenes, and
applying the relative value of evidentiary indications throughout the full
investigation process to include its successful presentation in a court of
law as “case law is replete with appeals that attack the quality of police
investigations in murder cases . . . the law points to . . . solvability fac-
tors: . . . [among them] . . . the quality of the investigation at the crime
scene(s)33 . . .”
As noted by Keppel and Weis (1993), few studies have examined the
quality of investigative work as it might relate to declining rates of ho-
micide clearance or how those issues of quality might be affected by the
particular or peculiar characteristics of a criminal incident in the ability
of officers to solve the crime. Those research studies which do exist
have revealed through the qualitative research analysis the suggestions
that the operational policy directedness, an expectedness of an un-
complicated set of offense and offender characteristics, and the use or
application of resources in homicide investigation viable in the past are
unsuitable to the realities of our contemporary society. The quality
of homicide investigative that emerges in the qualitative research analy-
sis extending from the 1970s to date would seem to strongly suggest
that the investigator’s and agency’s discretionary and discriminating
 Janet McClellan 65

decisionmaking is equally responsible for the successful resolution or

failure of an investigation. The argument is bolstered by our decreasing
ability to successfully conclude a homicide investigation since the
1960s regardless of the many touted improvements in technologies,
education, and training.

CONCLUSIONS

There may be little that law enforcement investigators can do about

the changing nature of homicides committed in the United States as it
portends forces of socio-economic and systemic alterations of culture
and national character that are greater than the efforts practical for any
individual or department other than to understand, appreciate, and apply
its significance in investigative practices. However, it is vital that the
nature and character of law enforcement investigative efforts be exam-
ined and change to more readily and legally assure that the clearance
and solve rate of homicide are significantly and positively affected by
(1) the investigators’ educational, training, experience, supported by
their decisionmaking and (2) the organizational decisionmaking and
response to homicide offenses. As Keppel and Weis (1993) noted over
ten years ago, “There is not one rigorous, empirical study that focuses
on the formal reaction to homicides by those agencies and agents re-
sponsible for solving the crime and apprehending the offender.”34 That
study would involve the cooperative and research investigative efforts
of researchers and law enforcement agencies. The value of a series of
research and investigative inquiries should additionally be made that
could provide for an examination of the critical factors that join other-
wise disjointed and seemingly independent activities of the offender
to the victim, techniques and processes, organizational practices and
policies, and the activities associated with investigative customs that
influence the solution of the murder case.
We are better technicians. We understand and are capable of apply-
ing technical expertise and garner greater acceptance for those pro-
cesses and techniques in courts of law. Unfortunately, we are not better
at solving homicides and we do so more poorly than many of our prede-
cessors who operated without cell phones, computers, a plethora of fo-
rensic science advances, diagnostic devices, and databases. Therefore,
it appears that questions must be asked and answers found. Perhaps we
need to ask different questions, ask them in different ways, and ask
66 JOURNAL OF SECURITY EDUCATION

questions about different processes. We need to consider the questions

and find answers should we ever hope to help victims achieve a sem-
blance of justice and to hold the offenders accountable for their actions.
The changes in the nature, complexion, complexities, political and
social structures of the nation in the previous forty years provided
greater economic opportunities, educational advancements, social equi-
ties, and equalities that helped citizens in this democracy to advance.
However, these great developments also brought along a shift and
change in the expectations and realities of those living in and working
in the criminal justice system. Therefore, reflection, change, and ad-
aptation are central to the success of criminal justice in order to respond
to the needs of the citizens. It is not a static need. The country has not
stopped changing, nothing ever does.

NOTES
1. W. C. Regoeczi, L. W. Kennedy, & R. A. Silverman, “Uncleared homicides: A
Canada/United States comparison.” Homicides Studies, 4, no. 2 (2000): 135-161.
2. W. C. Regoeczi & T. D. Miethe, “Taking on the unknown: A qualitative comparative
analysis of unknown relationship homicides.” Homicide Studies, 7, no. 3 (2003): 211.
3. Ibid., 223-224.
4. M. J. Borg & K. F. Parker, “Mobilizing law in urban areas: The social structure
of homicide clearance rates.” Law and Society Review, 35, no. 2 (2001): 435-466.
5. J. L. Puckett & R. J. Lundman, “Factors affection homicide clearances: Multi-
variate analysis of a more complete conceptual framework.” Journal of Research in
Crime and Delinquency, 40, no. 2 (2003): 181.
6. Ibid., 184.
7. Ibid., 183.
8. Ibid.
9. K. L. Litwin “A multivariate analysis of factors affecting homicide clearances.”
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 41, no. 4 (2004): 327-351.
10. Ibid., 341.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., 342.
14. Ibid., 342-343.
15. Ibid., 343.
16. Ibid., 347.
17. Ibid., 345.
18. The changing nature and patterns of homicide in the United States are deter-
mined by examining variables indicating the method used to kill the victim, and cir-
cumstances surrounding the death, including variables pertaining to offenders, number
of victims, number of offenders arrested or identified, and disposition of event for
offenders. Variables of victims include the location of the murder, victim drug or
 Janet McClellan 67

alcohol use, and the relationship of the victim to the offender. Demographic variables
for the offender and victim including age, sex, race, socio-economic, gender identifica-
tion, and marital status.
19. C. Lee, “The value of life in death: Multiple regression and event history analy-
sis of homicide clearances in Los Angles County.” Journal of Criminal Justice, 33
(2005): 527-534.
20. Ibid., 531.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., 552.
23. Ibid., 531.
24. FBI, Crime in the United States (1996). Retrieved from FBI Press Release at
http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/crime/ucr.95, October 31, 1996.
25. Lee, “The value of life in death: Multiple regression and event history analysis
of homicide clearances in Los Angles County,” 532.
26. Ibid., 531.
27. Social class: Lower-middle class = Lower-paid professionals, but not manual
laborers (i.e., police officers, non-management office workers, small business owners).
28. Upper-lower class = Blue-collar workers and manual laborers, also known as
the “working class.” Lower-lower class = the homeless and permanently unemployed,
as well as the “working poor.” Retrieved from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Social_class, September 10, 2006.
29. D. M. Kennedy (Ed.). The brief American pageant: A history of the republic
(6th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.
30. Berkin, C. B. & Anderson, B. S. The history handbook. Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2000.
31. Self, R. O. “The boundaries of class in urban America: Street gangs, social
workers, and the meaning of the mean streets.” Reviews in American History, 28, no. 2
(2000): 290-297.
32. Recidivism, for the purpose of this article, is defined as a rearrest or recon-
viction of a felonious offense.
33. Keppel, R. D. & Wies, J. G. “Time and distance as solvability factors in murder
cases.” Journal of Forensic Sciences, 39, no. 2 (1994): 386-401.
34. Ibid., 387.
35. Ibid., 386.

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Received: 10/05/06
Accepted: 10/27/06

doi:10.1300/J460v02n03_05