Clearance rate

This article is about the criminological term. For the pharmacological term, see clearance (pharmacology).

U.S. 2004 clearance rates separated by crime type

In criminal justice, clearance rate is calculated by dividing the number of crimes that are "cleared", a criminal charge being laid, or convicted by the total number of crimes recorded. Various groups use clearance rates as a measure of crimes solved by the police.

Clearance rates can be problematic for measuring the performance of police services and for comparing various police services. This is because a police force may employ a different way of measuring clearance rates. For example, each police force may have a different method of recording when a "crime" has occurred and different criteria for determining when a crime has been "cleared." A given police force may appear to have a much better clearance rate because of its calculation methodology.[1]

In system conflict theory, it is argued that clearance rates cause the police to focus on appearing to solve crimes (generating high clearance rate scores) rather than actually solving crimes. Further focus on clearance rates may result in effort being expended to attribute crimes (correctly or incorrectly) to a criminal, which may not result in retribution, compensation, rehabilitation or deterrence.^[citation needed]

Homicide clearance rate

Homicide clearance rate in the USA has been decreasing from 93% in 1962 to 54% in 2020.[2] Some U.S. police forces have been criticized for overuse of "exceptional clearance", which is intended to classify as "cleared" cases where probable cause to arrest a suspect exists, but police are unable to do so for reasons outside their control (such as death or incarceration in a foreign country).[3]

While homicide clearance rate differs between countries, with around 98% in Finland and around 24% in Trinidad and Tobago, a direct comparison is limited due to differing definitions and criminal justice procedures.[4]

See also

• Conviction rate
• Crime harm index
• Crime statistics
• Criminal investigation
• Dark figure of crime
• Fear of crime
• List of unsolved deaths
• Under-reporting

References

1. Greene, Jack R. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Police Science, Volume 1. Oxfordshire, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. p. 907. ISBN 978-0415970006. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
2. Cook, Philip J.; Mancik, Ashley (26 January 2024). "The Sixty-Year Trajectory of Homicide Clearance Rates: Toward a Better Understanding of the Great Decline". Annual Review of Criminology. 7 (1). Annual Reviews: 59–83. doi:10.1146/annurev-criminol-022422-122744. ISSN 2572-4568.
3. Mark Greenblatt; Mark Fahey; Bernice Yeung (November 16, 2018). "Case Cleared: The Consequences Of 'Exceptional Clearance'".
4. Liem, Marieke; Suonpää, Karoliina; Lehti, Martti; Kivivuori, Janne; Granath, Sven; Walser, Simone; Killias, Martin (30 March 2018). "Homicide clearance in Western Europe". European Journal of Criminology. 16 (1). SAGE Publications: 81–101. doi:10.1177/1477370818764840. hdl:1887/64091. ISSN 1477-3708.

External links

• Wesley Lowery; Kimbriell Kelly; Ted Mellnik; Steven Rich (2018-06-06). "Where Murders Go Unsolved". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-10-07. - "The Post has mapped more than 52,000 homicides in major American cities over the past decade and found that across the country, there are areas where murder is common but arrests are rare."