What clears burglary offenses? Estimating the influences of multiple perspectives of burglary clearance in Philadelphia

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Although many studies have examined the correlates of homicide clearance rates, few analyses have examined the factors related to the clearance of burglary offenses. The purpose of this paper is to address several gaps in the literature to determine if burglary clearance rates are due to discretionary, non-discretionary, and/or neighborhood contextual factors. Design/methodology/approach -Data are analyzed from more than 10,000 burglary incidents in Philadelphia from 2010 using multilevel models to simultaneously test for the influence of multiple perspectives of the factors of crime clearance. Findings -The results indicate that variables representing broken windows enforcement, discretionary factors, and non-discretionary factors are related to the increased likelihood that burglaries are cleared, but processes associated with social disorganization within communities is not.Research limitations/implications -The findings contribute to the literature by showing that future examinations of the factors of burglary clearance should consider community contextual factors, and specifically, that broken windows police enforcement appears to be a more important predictor of burglary clearance than do factors related to social disorganization theory. As a result, it is suggested that law enforcement also consider their tactics regarding low-level offenses if they wish to address the clearance rate of burglaries. Originality/value -This analysis is among the first to examine multiple perspectives of the factors of crime clearance on burglary incidents.

Property Crime Clearance in Small Jurisdictions

“…Conversely, in the 35 largest cities in Texas, larger Black populations increased clearance of larceny and vehicle theft but had no effect on burglary (Jang et al, 2008). Racial heterogeneity was also insignificant in a recent comparison of burglary clearance across Philadelphia neighborhoods (Lockwood, 2014).…”

“…Regarding property crime, Wong (2010) found an unexpected positive relationship between residential instability (percent of the population who had moved in the last year) and a summed measure of property crime clearance in Canadian cities. In the United States, Lockwood (2014) found that neighborhood-level residential stability did not affect burglary clearance in Philadelphia, while Roth (2017) found no effect on burglary, larceny, or vehicle theft clearance across large cities.…”

“…Research has examined the predictors of crime clearance at the incident, neighborhood, and city level (e.g., Cihan, Zhang, & Hoover, 2012; Lockwood, 2014; Roberts & Roberts, 2016; Wong, 2010), and each approach offers unique advantages that are considered in detail later in this article. The reader should note that, given the different limitations of each type of research, caution is necessary when comparing findings across different levels of aggregation.…”

“…Two, it may be more difficult to clear crimes in cities with much social disorganization if residents of disorganized areas are less cooperative with investigators due to fear of retaliation from other citizens or a general distrust of law enforcement (Roberts, 2008). Overall, there is mixed evidence about the impact of social disorganization on crime clearance and thus a need for additional research in this area (Lockwood, 2014).…”

“…The percentage of crimes that are cleared—the clearance rate—is commonly used as an indicator of the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies by policy makers, the media, and criminologists (Pare & Ouimet, 2004; Worrall, 2016). Low clearance rates can have a variety of adverse effects, including decreased trust in law enforcement, greater fear of crime, poor morale among officers, and reduced deterrence (Lockwood, 2014; Roberts, 2008). Thus, researchers have done much to assess the incident details, policing factors, and community traits that affect clearance rates (Cordner, 1989; Doerner & Doerner, 2012; Jang, Hoover, & Lawton, 2008; Litwin, 2004; Litwin & Xu, 2007; Lockwood, 2014; Ousey & Lee, 2010; Puckett & Lundman, 2003; Roberts & Roberts, 2016; Worrall, 2016).…”