Mobilizing Law in Urban Areas: The Social Structure of Homicide Clearance Rates

This research explores the utility of Black's theory of law for explaining differences in homicide clearance rates across large cities in the United States. Using insights from the social disorganization literature, we develop and evaluate hypotheses regarding homicide clearance rates and aggregate measures of stratification, morphology, culture, organization, and alternative social control. Our findings support the argument that the rate of clearing homicide cases varies according to the social characteristics of the location where they occur. In particular, clearance rates were highest in cities marked by greater racial disparities in education, income, employment, and residence; greater residential stability; higher levels of educational attainment; higher expenditures for educational programs; and lower rates of homicide. We discuss the implications of our analysis for both the social disorganization literature and Black's theory, and we suggest directions for further inquiry into the relationship between structural conditions in urban areas and homicide clearance rates. Nationally, the police fail to clear approximately 80% of all index crimes and one of every three cases of lethal violence (FBI 1997:205-06). Index crimes refer to the eight crime categories listed in the Uniform Crime Reports, the FBI's annual compilation of crime statistics. These eight are homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. It is interesting to note that FBI data provide evidence of substantial differences in police clearance activity across geographic locations. For example, 1996 clearance rates for homicide cases were highest (approximately 79%) in small cities and rural counties, and lowest (about 66%) in the nation's largest cities and suburban counties (FBI 1997:22). Despite these variations, sociological research examining how the likelihood of clearing criminal cases is influenced by the social and economic characteristics of the location where they occur is sparse (Tittle & Rowe 1974; Brown 1978). In this research we address that void by examining factors that contribute to the clearance of homicide cases in the context of urban areas. Several studies have analyzed clearance rates from an econometric framework (see, e.g., Phillips & Votey 1972; Sjoquist 1973; Pogue 1975; Theiler 1977; Wilson & Boland 1978; Cloninger & Sartorius 1979; Cook 1979) and have modeled changes in clearance rates over time (Greenberg & Kessler 1982). 1 The majority of these analyses use clearance rates, or alternatively, arrest rates, within explanatory models focused on evaluating deterrence arguments. In particular, studies have examined the link between clearance or arrest rates and crime rates. Results regarding this relationship are mixed. Although some studies demonstrate a crime-prevention effect of arrests on crime rates (Phillips & Votey 1972; Sjoquist 1973; Wilson & Boland 1978; Cloninger & Sartorius 1979), others fail to find consistent evidence that higher clearance rates result in significantly lower crime rates (Greenberg & Kessler 1982; the authors also provide a thorough critique of other empirical studies in this regard). The relative scarcity of empirical analyses investigating the link between community conditions and the likelihood of clearing crime is especially noteworthy in light of sociological scholarship emphasizing the significance of structural conditions on crime rates. For instance, social disorganization theory posits that areas plagued by multiple layers of disadvantage suffer high crime rates due to a lack of social, economic, and institutional resources to effectively prevent and fight crime, either informally through family, church, and neighborhood efforts, or formally, through police activity (Shaw & McKay 1942; Kornhauser 1978; Messner 1982; Bursik 1988; Sampson & Groves 1989; Messner & Sampson 1991). …