Using National Crime Victimization Survey Data to Examine Correlates of Victim Perceptions of Crime Clearance Over Time

• In Event: Understanding Patterns and Trends in Clearance of Lethal and Non-lethal Criminal Victimization

Abstract

While person, crime, and place characteristics have emerged as significant indicators of clearance, most clearance studies rely on law enforcement data that cannot speak to victims’ knowledge of case clearance. Moreover, few studies of clearance can explain clearance over long periods of time and at the national level, limiting their generalizability. Determining which factors have and continue to influence a victim’s likelihood of reporting that their case was cleared is important given the significance of victim satisfaction for fairness judgements and future criminal justice system involvement. The current study uses data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to test the effects of various solvability (e.g., crime type) and devaluation (e.g., race, sex) predictors on crime clearance (i.e., arrest and/or charges made) over a period of almost three decades (1993 – 2022). We examine how our regression results compare with prior studies of police data and discuss the utility of examining victim perceptions of whether their cases were resolved by law enforcement.

Authors

• Paige E. Vaughn, Spring Hill College

• Maribeth L. Rezey, Loyola University Chicago

• Lee Ann Slocum, University of Missouri-St. Louis