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Homicide clearance rates on the decline

Scripps Howard News Service last week ran a series on the national decline in clearance rates (the percentage of cases solved) for homicides. The main story opens:Every year in America, 6,000 killers get away with murder. The percentage of homicides that go unsolved in the United States has risen alarmingly even as the homicide rate has fallen to levels last seen in the 1960s. Despite dramatic improvements in DNA analysis and forensic science, police fail to make an arrest in more than one-third of all homicides. National clearance rates for murder and manslaughter have fallen from about 90 percent in the 1960s to below 65 percent in recent years.In Texas, the statewide clearance rate is 71%. S-H had several additional stories accompanying the feature that may interest Grits readers:Many 'best practices' known to improve homicide investigationsA look at what kind of homicides get solvedOne in nine Americans know the victim of an unsolved homicideThis trend strikes me as particularly odd because we've witnessed a decline in homicide rates over the last 20 years and expansive growth of the number of law enforcement agencies and personnel, but over the same period the proportion of murders solved has also gone down...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 01, 2010 (boomark / email).