John P. Jarvis

Sexual Homicide of Elderly Females Linking Offender Characteristics to Victim and Crime Scene Attributes

The FBI consults regularly on the investigation of extraordinarily violent and unusual homicide cases. Although overall awareness of elderly victimization throughout the United States has greatly increased over the past decade, little attention has been focused on elderly female victims of sexual homicides and the offenders who commit these crimes. Law enforcement agencies are often faced with rarely seen and excessively violent crime scenes as they attempt to solve these homicides. This in-depth study examines the characteristics of 128 elderly women who were murdered by 110 offenders as well as the characteristics of the attendant crime scenes. An empirical analysis of crime scene attributes, victim characteristics (including severity of victim injuries), and offender demographics produces significant predictive information about offender characteristics that may assist law enforcement investigations of such cases.

Clearing Murders Is It about Time

This study uses data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to explore the impact of model selection on determining the association of victim-level and incident-level factors to the likelihood of homicide clearance. We compare both traditional operationalizations of clearance rates as well as the time to clearance as dependent variables in examinations of correlates of solvability in homicide cases. Using a different approach than most other analyses of this problem, the results affirm the consistency of some effects but also reveal some important differences when the aspect of time is factored into the model. Implications for analyses of efficiency and effectiveness of police response to homicide, cold-case analyses, and other strategies for solving crime are discussed.

The Decline of Arrest Clearances For Criminal Homicide: Causes, Correlates, and Third Parties

The percent of offenders arrested for murder in the United States has declined in all reporting cities from 92% in 1960 to 66% in 1997. This paper evaluates three sources of evidence that account for the decline in homicide arrests: police-based programs; changes in the character of homicides; and community and social factors. In the final section we suggest a view of homicide as self-help and explore third party behavior in relation to police cooperation, fear of retaliation, and type of homicide.

An Exploratory Analysis of Factors Affecting Homicide Investigations: Examining the Dynamics of Murder Clearance Rates

This study seeks to examine the practices of law enforcement agencies in attempting to solve cases of homicide. Five key dimensions, as determined from the extant literature, are examined using data from a recent law enforcement agency study of homicide investigative practices and policies. These include management practices, investigative procedures, analytical methods, demographics of the population served, and the extent of political influences that might affect agency effectiveness in clearing homicides. As expected, the results show some factors that enable effective agency investigations and other factors that hinder such processes. Some results can be interpreted to support contentions of victim devaluation by the police. However, an alternative interpretation, and perhaps more viable notion, is offered suggesting that police devaluation by the community may also contribute to explanations for the variance found in homicide clearance rates.

Elderly Female Serial Sexual Homicide: A Limited Empirical Test of Criminal Investigative Analysis

The purpose of criminal investigative analysis is to assist law enforcement in identifying and apprehending violent offenders by identifying important suspect and crime scene characteristcs. The genesis of criminal investigative analysis grew out of micro-level reviews of unusually violent crime cases. Although the descriptive terminology used to identify the process has changed over the years, the process of assessing violent criminal behavior has not. Lack of agreement as to what constitutes criminal investigative analysis has also led some to view the process as more art than science. In an effort to clarify some of these issues, an analysis of cases of serial sexual homicides of elderly women is conducted. Although the sexual homicide of elderly women represents a small percentage of overall homicides in the United States, the authors provide empirical evidence supporting the use of criminal investigative analysis in solving these unusual cases. The FBI regularly consults on various types of violent homicide cases using this methodology and valuable investigative information often is yielded in other cases as well.

Missing Data and Imputation in the Uniform Crime Reports and the Effects on National Estimates

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program has been a major source of data on crime since 1929. These data were long considered authoritative, but lately, questions have arisen about their accuracy. Maltz has documented the magnitude of missing data in the series and demonstrated their import for research on policy issues. Maltzs work focuses on agency-level estimates for specific months, but the UCR program was never meant to provide estimates for this unit or time period. So, although Maltzs work is important, it has not addressed the consequences of missing data for the principal purpose of the UCR program—providing annual national estimates of the level and change in crimes known to the police. This article complements Maltzs work by assessing the magnitude and distribution of missing data nationally and their effect on national-level and change estimates. It also examines the effects of the FBIs imputation practices on these estimates.

Behavioral Perspectives on Child Homicide The Role of Access, Vulnerability, and Routine Activities Theory

This article reviews existing research on the topics of child abduction and child homicide and attempts to identify and assess potential victim risk factors through a discussion of victim access, vulnerability, and routine activities theory. For example, are children of certain ages or genders more likely to be targeted by offenders? Who are the offenders in child homicides and what are the relationships between the offenders and their victims? Does motive or crime technique differ between offenders who have familiarity with victims versus those who are strangers? Ecological perspectives on child homicide are also discussed, including the concepts of competition, predation, and developmental victimology. Research that addresses these questions directly benefits law enforcement personnel, social workers, and forensic scientists actively working child homicide cases, and social scientists involved in the formulation of child homicide prevention programs and policies. In addition, this information helps improve prevention programs designed to protect children, helps children protect themselves, and provides potential avenues for identifying offenders in such cases.

Violent Encounters A Criminal Event Analysis of Lethal and Nonlethal Outcomes

This study identifies key factors from the criminal events perspective that affect the lethality of violent encounters. Data for this research are derived from the National Incident-Based Reporting System of the FBI. Using logistic regression analysis, the effects of several contextual factors, including weapon, location, time of incident, circumstances, and victim and offender characteristics and relationships are explored. Analysis reveals that variables from each of the six categories affect the lethality of interpersonal violence, but the circumstance and type of weapon exert the strongest influence. Our investigation demonstrates the utility of the criminal events perspective for explaining the outcomes of violent encounters.

Victims and Offenders in Two Crime Statistics Programs: A Comparison of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) overcomes a basiclimitation of the traditional summary Uniform Crime Reporting program (UCR)by collecting victim information. Using this new victim information tocompare National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and NIBRS results, wefind some similarities as well as some differences in the characteristics ofvictims and offenders suggested by the two programs. Similarities appear inthe proportions of men and women involved as victims and offenders forrobbery and assault. Comparisons are more difficult and the proportions lesssimilar for property offenses. Nevertheless, the results suggest that whenthe NIBRS is fully developed, it will be an important source of informationon the characteristics of both victims and offenders. Even before theredesigned program is fully implemented, one of the most important featuresof NIBRS reports will be their ability to provide local area victimizationinformation. In addition, the NIBRS will provide much more information onarrests and the characteristic of offenders than any existing program.

Examining Attributes of Homicides Toward Quantifying Qualitative Values of Injury Severity

The empirical value of traditional measures related to homicide, the cause of death, and weapon use are well researched and documented in the literature. This research proposes new scale measures quantifying the degree of injury exhibited in homicide cases that can be used to further examine the dynamics of homicidal behavior. These scales are then tested in an examination of a limited set of data reflecting homicides of elderly women. Normally the purview of trauma studies, where the use of injury scales to assess patient survivability is known, homicidal injury is examined using a similar method as a means for exploring offender and crime scene variables. As proposed here, these injury scales may also prove to be useful in furthering other areas of homicide research.