RT Article
T1 The Different Crime Solving Styles of Police Agencies across the United States.: A Latent Class Analysis of Criminal Investigation Goals
JF American journal of criminal justice
VO 46
IS 3
SP 496
OP 527
A1 Lee, Yung Hyeock
A1 Cho, Sujung
A2 Cho, Sujung
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1764203496
AB This study employed latent class analysis (LCA) to identify distinct subgroups of U.S. police agencies, each having a similar pattern of criminal investigation goals. Using a nationally representative sample of 1746 U.S. police agencies, including municipal, county sheriffs, and State police, this analysis yielded four subgroups: professional (32.5% of the sample), enforcing (25.2%), servicing (20.5%), and avoiding (21.8%). Results indicate that organizational level predictors of police policies and practices in the criminal investigation process, such as the roles of the public, investigative activities of patrol officers, management of detective work, and forensic support, vary across subgroups. All four variables were significant in predicting membership in the professional agencies when compared to the avoiding agencies. Also, the odds of belonging to the enforcing agencies, compared to avoiding agencies, were significantly increased for agencies with management of detective work and forensic support variables. Furthermore, the servicing agency class membership was significantly related to only forensic support variables, compared to the avoiding agencies. Finally, the mean clearance rates for robberies varied across classes, and the rate was highest in the professional agencies. Police agencies have their own crime-solving methods that predominantly reflect the organizational philosophy and values and also lead to differences in crime clearance rates.
K1 Clearance rates
K1 Latent Class Analysis
K1 Criminal investigation process
K1 Police criminal investigation policies and practices
K1 Crime solving goals
DO 10.1007/s12103-020-09558-w