Case Clearance: Important Factors in Fatal and Non-Fatal Shooting Investigations

• In Event: Police Use of Force

Abstract

Clearance of a criminal case indicates that a criminal investigation has been considered to be complete by a law enforcement agency, however official data sources such as the F.B.I.’s Uniform Crime Report do not distinguish whether or not a case was cleared through the arrest of a suspect or some alternative means. Shooting investigations in particular are less likely to result in the arrest of a suspect, especially in the case of non-fatal assault shootings. This project utilized data from police investigative files and interviews with investigators from metropolitan areas within New York State in order to assess the importance of various contextual and investigative factors in the clearance of violent shooting cases. There is a large gap in the literature regarding non-fatal shooting investigations and it is the intention of this study is to help in filling that gap, though further research is encouraged for the development of a more complete understanding of shooting investigations.

Authors

• Christopher Sweadner, Rochester Institute of Technology

• John Klofas, Rochester Institute of Technology

• Irshad Altheimer, Rochester Institute of Technology