The Use of Exceptional Clearance in Law Enforcement

在执法中使用特殊许可

• 批准号: 2213819
• 负责人: Scott Walfield
• 金额: $ 3.28万
• 依托单位: East Carolina University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-15 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2213819&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Use; Exceptional; Clearance; Law; Enforcement

In this study, the relationship between serious violent and property crime case outcomes and the variation in how exceptional clearances are used by agencies is investigated. Law enforcement agencies control how cases flow through the criminal justice system through the use of arrest and exceptional clearance. Exceptional clearance occurs when law enforcement has sufficient evidence to arrest but circumstances prevented them from taking the offender into custody (e.g., suspect whereabouts unknown). If the crime is recorded as solved but no arrest was made, this can degrade the accuracy of the reported crime clearance data and can lead to the dissemination of misinformation to decision makers and others. The analysis in this study uses characteristics of the crime incident as well as information from the law enforcement organization and the community. Results will further the precision and transparency of the measurement and reporting of criminal case outcomes, which in turn will help improve public safety.Guided by the constructs of victim devaluation perspective, social disorganization theory, and organizational theory, this study examines the extent of variation among the three common criminal case outcomes (i.e., open, clearance by arrest, and exceptional clearance) for Index crimes using a multi-level approach. At the micro-level, 2015-2016 National Incident-Based Reporting System data is used which includes victim, offender, and case characteristics and the outcome of the case. This is merged with macro-level data which includes police organizational data derived from the 2016 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey and community data via the 2011-2015 American Community Survey 5-year estimates. The study has practical applications in how crime clearance statistics are presented to decision makers and the public in addition to addressing the wide variation in use of exceptional clearances by law enforcement agencies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在这项研究中，严重的暴力和财产犯罪案件的结果之间的关系，并在如何特殊清除机构使用的变化进行了调查。 执法机构通过使用逮捕和例外放行来控制案件如何通过刑事司法系统。例外清除发生在执法部门有足够的证据逮捕，但情况阻止他们将罪犯拘留（例如，嫌疑人下落不明）。 如果犯罪被记录为已解决，但没有逮捕任何人，这可能会降低所报告的犯罪清除数据的准确性，并可能导致向决策者和其他人传播错误信息。 本研究的分析使用了犯罪事件的特征以及来自执法机构和社区的信息。 研究结果将进一步提高刑事案件结果测量和报告的准确性和透明度，从而有助于改善公共安全。本研究以受害者贬值视角、社会解体理论和组织理论为指导，考察了三种常见刑事案件结果（即，开放，逮捕清除，和特殊清除）的指数犯罪使用多层次的方法。 在微观层面，使用了2015-2016年国家基于事件的报告系统数据，其中包括受害者，罪犯和案件特征以及案件的结果。 这与宏观层面的数据合并，其中包括来自2016年执法管理和行政统计调查的警察组织数据和通过2011-2015年美国社区调查5年估计的社区数据。 该研究有实际的应用，在如何犯罪清除统计数据提交给决策者和公众，除了解决广泛的变化，在使用特殊的间隙由执法机构。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。