How long does it take? An exploration of the time between case assignment and a detective’s first investigative activity

Citizens and victims perceive the criminal justice system to be protracted. Blame for lengthy delays has disproportionately fallen on detective work. To that end, these analyses explore how long it took 184 detectives to work index crimes. Data suggest that more serious crimes, cases with a known suspect, and offenses that did not result in an arrest are most likely to be investigated and worked more promptly by detectives. Detectives, however, continue to exercise a great deal of discretion in if and when cases are worked once they are assigned. These findings are discussed as they relate to police performance indicators, the allocation of departmental resources, issues of crime control, and citizen satisfaction with the police.     

A content analysis on state human trafficking statutes: how does the legal system acknowledge survivors in the United States (US)?

Crime, Law and Social Change - Human trafficking is an egregious violation of basic human rights that has reached global proportions. Despite the gradual proliferation of social science research...     

The methodological struggles of racial profiling research: a causal question that automobile stop data has yet to answer

Automobile stop research finds that citizen race influences officer decision-making. Researchers, however, report methodological issues inhibiting them from drawing causal inferences about the existence of racial profiling. The purpose of this study is to deconstruct this field of inquiry through a causal lens to inform the next generation of scholarship. Through an analysis of automobile stop data, temporal ordering issues are exposed. Relating to association, most studies find that racial minorities are more likely to be searched, however, spuriousness issues continue to plague racial profiling studies as researchers rarely estimate departmental, passenger, vehicle, and temporal variables. To confront these issues, researchers are encouraged to engage in primary data collection and explore recent statistical innovations in their analytical strategies.