Environmental Factors Influencing Urban Homicide Clearance Rates: A Spatial Analysis of New York City. Issue 4 (November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kennedy, Leslie W.; Caplan, Joel M.; Piza, Eric L.; Thomas, Amanda L.
• Is Part Of: Homicide studies. Volume 25:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 313
• Page End: 334
• Publication Date: 2021-11
• Subjects: prevention -- homicide clearance -- risk terrain modeling -- police investigation -- crime mapping; Homicide -- Periodicals; 364.152
• DOI: 10.1177/1088767920976183
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1088-7679

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the conditions under which clearance rates improve by looking at the experience across New York City. Using one agency provides a control on the administrative differences that appear across other jurisdictions that have been studied, usually through cross-national analysis. Our analysis uses Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) to identify environmental features that relate to closed versus open homicide cases using two years of New York City Police Department (NYPD) data. This analysis is supplemented with an investigation of precinct-wide social structure variables to examine how context matters in influencing closure rates.