Abstract;
This project examines the method of policing agencies in solving homicides in England and Wales. Moreover, I will go into depth about the factors affecting the national homicide clearance rate in England and Wales. Four key points will be analyzed using both primary data collected from a survey of various agencies across England and Wales, as well as secondary data gathered from reliable online sources. These include, briefly, the management of practices, investigative procedures, analytical methods and demographics of the general public affected, and the overall effect these have on the agency’s ability to clear a homicide case. Evidently, the results suggest that there are certain factors that play a bigger part than others.
Foreword;
Though murder and homicide are considered to be different (homicide is defined as “the killing of one person by another”, whereas murder is simply a homicide committed with “malice aforethought”) for the sake of this project they will be one and the same. I wanted to research what the current statistics are in terms of homicides being committed in the UK, and the trend between the amount of homicides being committed to the rate of crime clearance. Subsequently, I wanted to deliberate on why the trends are the way they are – if clearance was lower than the rate of crime, why is this? What affects homicide clearance rate?
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It should also be noted that some of the collected secondary data sources are based on data from the USA, however, the procedures for homicide clearance in the UK and the USA are almost interchangeable; i.e. with very few and minute differences.
The solving and subsequent clearance of homicide cases is obviously of the utmost importance for police departments and the communities they protect. Unfortunately, the national clearance rate for homicide in England and Wales has dropped significantly in a very short amount of time – with a decrease of roughly 47% of homicide cases being cleared from an original 77% clearance in Apr ‘06 - Mar ‘07, leading to just a minuscule 30% clearance rate in Apr ‘16 - Mar ‘17, according to the data in the Home Office Homicide Index. This is a shocking figure, but coincides with what BBC News reports: that “only 9% of crimes end with suspects being charged”, and that “nearly half (48%) of investigations are closed”. This raises questions as to why only roughly 3 in 10 homicides were solved in the most recent data provided by the Home Office Homicide Index (Apr ‘16 - Mar ‘17). In a recent article, BBC News reports that the number of homicides being committed has “risen for a fourth year”, which subsequently insinuates that the charge and clearance rate for homicide cases will only decrease further. For example, from the aforementioned Home Office Homicide Index, I have created a graph that shows the trend of homicides left uncleared against number of crimes being committed annually.
Here we can see that there is a direct correlation with the number of offences and the clearance rate. From the graph, it is even more evident that homicide numbers are increasing, and thereby the homicide rate in the UK is at an all-time high. Furthermore, the solve rate is incredibly low and can be seen to be increasing rapidly, which solidifies BBC News’ statement. Popular news reporters such as The Independent (2018) and The Guardian (2018) have both written similar articles that homicide rate will only continue to increase and that there is little chance of returning to the high homicide clearance range from 13 years ago. BBC News has further reported that with the correct funding, investigative procedures, adequate staffing, and better analytical processes many more homicide cases could be responded to and cleared effectively. This conclusion is not strictly incorrect; however, it is unreasonable to say that every homicide case can be solved; many crime scenes have insufficient evidence or are simply discovered too late and subsequently have lost evidence to time. For example, the case of the Jamison family will likely never be solved as the crime scene was left undiscovered for a prolonged period of time and was therefore tampered with by animals and general decay – there was not enough evidence to further the investigation. Furthermore, it should also be considered that crime scenes are rarely orderly, and it is often hard to trek through a timeline in order to create a profile of the offender.
These issues aside, the question remains as to why the homicide clearance rate is so low, and whether or not the police processes that support homicide investigations can be improved.
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