America’s Declining Homicide Clearance Rate: A Race and Community Level Perspective

• In Event: Conceptual and Community Level Approaches to Violence

Abstract

America’s homicide clearance rate has dropped to a new low, clearing only 54 percent of homicides according to 2020 UCR report. This is the lowest clearance rate on record. While homicide clearance has received considerable attention, community-based approaches are far more limited. Using data on over 15,400 census tracts/neighborhoods across 50 U.S. cities, we examine how neighborhood characteristics impact homicide clearances, including multiple indicators of economic disadvantage, immigration and firearm availability. In efforts to capture variation across places, homicide clearances are analyzed by race and by types of communities.

Authors

• Karen F Parker, University of Delaware

• Richard Stansfield, Rutgers University- Camden