Kenna Quinet

Repeat victimization among adolescents and young adults

Prior research has shown that victimization incidents are disproportionately concentrated among relatively few victims and that prior victimization is a consistent predictor of future risk. This paper expands existing knowledge on victimization by describing temporal patterns of risk and by developing and testing alternative explanatory models of the link between past and future risk. Analyses based on panel data from the National Youth Survey support both state dependence and heterogeneity interpretations of the correlation in risk over time. In other words, prior victimization predicts future risk in part because it alters something about the individual, and because it indicates an unmeasured propensity for victimization that persists over time. The theoretical implications of these findings, including the feasibility of a victim labeling perspective, are discussed.

Prostitutes as Victims of Serial Homicide: Trends and Case Characteristics, 1970-2009

This work includes a count of solved serial murder cases in the United States from 1970 to 2009. The number of serial murder cases has declined; the likelihood that a victim is a female has increased somewhat and although the numbers of all types of serial murder victims has declined, when a case occurs, victims are increasingly likely to be prostitutes, particularly female prostitutes. U.S. serial murder cases with prostitute victims accounted for 32% of all U.S. serial murder cases involving female victims only, 1970-2009. However, the proportion of solved cases involving female prostitute victims only increased across the study period from 16% during 1970-1979 to a high of 69% during 2000-2009. Prostitute killers amass a greater average number of victims than do nonprostitute killers and when analyzed by decade, those who kill primarily prostitutes, kill for slightly longer periods of time. The implications of findings for prevention and investigation efforts are discussed.

Evaluating the effects of information technology on problem-oriented-policing. If it doesn't fit, must we quit?

Technologies promise to make our organizations more productive, efficient or effective. But our experience does not always fulfill this promise. Public safety agencies are the target of a barrage of new information technologies offering better performance, many of which are attractive because they can be financed through federal grants. But when evaluations are performed of these technologies, improvements do not always result. This article describes the experiences of a state police agency (SPA) during its use of cellular digital packet data (CDPD) systems to support its problem-oriented policing (POP) project. The CDPD system should have improved the SPAs POP operations; in practice, it was not as clear. Although participants believed the CDPD technology worthwhile, there were only a few minor differences between POP officers that did and did not use it. This evaluation suggests the need for better databases to measure performance as well as more informed federal funding of ways to assess the impact of technologies.

The Missing Missing: Toward a Quantification of Serial Murder Victimization in the United States

Although early attempts to estimate the number of serial murder victims in the United States varied greatly and were exaggerated, current estimates may actually underestimate the number of serial murder victims. This study provides extrapolation from existing databases including missing persons, unidentified dead, and misidentified dead to estimate uncounted serial murder victims. In addition to providing lower and upper estimates of possible victims from these sources, this article also provides a methodology for counting “the missing missing”—missing persons who were never reported as missing and some of whom may be serial murder victims. By counting various sources of possible hidden serial murder victims, the addition of a lower estimate of 182 and an upper estimate of 1,832 additional annual serial murder victims in the United States is suggested.

Line of duty police deaths: A paradoxical trend in felonious homicides in the United States

Prior research in the U.S. has focused more on killings by police rather than of police. Additionally, previous research on felonious line‐of‐duty deaths (FLDD) of police has been limited because it has only covered certain time spans, cities or samples. This paper analyzes national trends in municipal, county and state officer deaths in the United States from 1960–1992. We examine several classes of variables in attempting to explain the trends: the number of officers, violence directed towards the police, general social violence and police practices. The present analyses finds an increase in FLDD from 1960–1971 and a paradoxical rather steady decline from 1971 to the present. Since 1989 (and in 1986), the U.S. male is more likely to be the victim of a homicide than is a line of duty police officer. Also, police are more likely to die as a result of an accident or suicide than a felonious (homicide) death. We conclude that the paradoxical decline may be explained partly by police practices of target hard...

Training police: A case study of differential impacts of problem-oriented policing training

This paper presents the findings of a case study of the immediate impact of problem-oriented policing (POP) training on lower- and higher-ranking officers of a state police agency in the USA. Findings indicate that there was relatively little immediate impact of training although the measurable impact was in the positive direction - a movement away from traditional attitudes towards a model favoring community involvement and the partnership tactics of POP. Some gains in knowledge of POP, the philosophy, and agency commitment were measured. Since the magnitude of the effectiveness of the training was greater for lower-ranking officers, agencies may want to conduct pre-training assessments to establish the level of understanding of POP and then customize training specific to that groups needs.

Establishing the Victim–Offender Relationship of Initially Unsolved Homicides Partner, Family, Acquaintance, or Stranger?

This analysis examines the extent to which homicides initially reported as unknown offender in end-of-year reports, once cleared, are more likely to have been perpetrated by strangers than other cleared homicides. Using solved and unsolved homicides in Indianapolis (N = 829), we determined victim–offender relationships in homicides reported as unsolved in year-end reports, when solved, were not significantly different from homicides reported as having a suspect in year-end reports. Indianapolis homicides were classified disproportionately as acquaintances. Findings help negate the ongoing myth that unsolved homicides are disproportionately stranger homicides. Results suggest decreased homicide clearance rates are not due to increased stranger homicides.

Who are the Unclaimed Dead

Unclaimed dead are deceased persons with no known next of kin (NoK) or NoK was located but did not claim the deceased. Unclaimed dead in Marion County, Indiana, 2004–2011, are examined. Comparisons are provided of the unclaimed to the claimed dead population and county death patterns. Race, gender, marital status, age, location, manner and cause of death, NoK, and days to disposition are analyzed. The unclaimed dead were disproportionately male, slightly more likely to be Black, younger at death, died from natural causes, had unknown marital status, were equally likely as not to have NoK, did not die in a hospital, and were subject to autopsy. Nearly half the unclaimed had NoK who did not claim the body; the other half had no identifiable NoK. Unclaimed were more likely to have an autopsy and to die from external causes. Most unclaimed were identified by means outside fingerprints or DNA.