The Influence of Suspect Status in Robbery Investigations

• In Event: Police Investigations, Reform, and Crime Control Initiatives

Abstract

Despite the abundance of fictional depictions of criminal investigations, little empirical knowledge exists on detective work. In an effort to address this information gap, this manuscript explores the influence of suspect status on detective activities, effort, and the likelihood of arrests in robbery criminal investigations. During a two month period, time-task log data were collected from 184 reactive detectives with the Houston Police Department. This information was then paired with incident report data for all assigned robberies during the first month of observation. This allowed at least 30 days (and up to 60 days) of detective effort to be observed. Generally, the findings indicate that cases with and without a known suspect at the time the case was assigned promote relatively different investigative activities, detective effort, and chances of arrest. Though this research is exploratory, it is poised to contribute to our limited understandings of criminal investigations, which is a prerequisite for improving this field of inquiry.

Authors

• Seth Wyatt Fallik, Florida Atlantic University

• Larry Hoover, Sam Houston State University