In Episode 2 definitions for “Cold Cases” will be provided along with how the problem of cold cases has become a crisis. To accomplish this a piece of research and a historical perspective of homicides during the past decades will be provided. In research conducted by Dr. Jim, he learned from the police agencies who responded to his survey that, 73% of the agencies would declare a case a cold case when there were no more investigative leads; that 20% of them felt that it should be determined bases on the passage of time; while 7% stated that once the original detective had been reassigned or retired, the case would officially then be classified as a cold case. In actuality it all depends on where you live as each jurisdiction tends to follow different reasoning. As depicted in the below table, one can see that while the number of homicides decreased from 1993 to 2007, the solving of those cases basically remained the same in the 60 percentile range. So we had about a 40% decrease in the number of homicides with little change in the number solved. This always begs the question, why?
Om Podcasten
Since 1980 the USA has accumulated over 250,000 unsolved homicides while the city of Memphis, TN has over 1,800. Various studies and the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ) Best Practices guide for Cold Cases has determined that we are in a “Cold Case Crisis”.
According to the FBI crime data for 2017, the homicide clearance or solve rate was about 61%, leaving four out of every ten homicides unsolved. And in 2016 the solve rate figure dropped to its lowest of 59.4%. On average this adds 6 – 7,000 unsolved cases to the cold case mix each year.
The national consensus of cold case experts, who were part of the NIJ Cold Case Working Group and contributed to the best practices guide, have confirmed that the forming of dedicated cold case units will reduce not only the number of cold cases, but will help increase the solving of new homicides as they are reported.
Additionally, if the proposed process with a solid commitment and sustainment of cold case investigations are integrated into the system, we will reduce violent crime, regain public confidence in our criminal justice system, solve more cases and provide information to the forgotten victims, the surviving families. It’s not how much it will cost us to have these units in place, but rather what it will cost us if we don’t!
This podcast, “Surviving Cold Cases with Dr. Jim”, will address the cold case issue, how we got here and what we can do about it. Through weekly episodes it will discuss the problem and the nuances of conducting cold case investigations. The listener will hear about some of the many steps involved in a homicide/cold case investigation, revealing the reality of the situation and what we can do about it to make our communities a safer place to live and work.
Jim Adcock, PhD, #SolveColdCases
cold cases, unsolved homicides, homicides, forensic science, investigation, genealogy, surviving victims, homicide family’s matter