The Role of Research and Analysis in Crime Incident Reviews
Crime Incident Reviews (CIRs) involve the detailed review of cases by people with street level knowledge of the cases. The goal of those reviews is to gain knowledge that will be useful in strategic thinking after looking across a number of cases. Research is central to the success of that process.The researcher may have assisted in organizing the Crime Incident Review Process and in preparing case presentation. During the review, however, the researcher’s task is to collect information about the cases and the discussion of the cases.
Police and others in the criminal justice system are trained to think in terms of the facts of criminal cases. Investigators will be extremely knowledgeable about the people, places and things that make their cases unique. Researchers, however, are trained to think in terms of the similarities and common features across cases.
That combination of roles is what makes Crime Incident Reviews a potentially powerful process for developing approaches to crime prevention. The police, prosecutors and others in the discussion can provide the details needed to understand the cases. The researcher can identify patterns of interest among the details of the specific cases. Research is thus a critical component of the Crime Incident Review process.
The researcher can collect specific details of cases and search for useful patterns. Such patterns may be found in the characteristics of offenders and victims, their criminal records or motives, or the characteristics of crime involved groups, or even in such variables as the places and times where crimes occur. The relevant patterns may reflect general trends in crime that are common in many jurisdictions and may also reflect unique elements in crime in the jurisdiction where the reviews are done. For example, reviews can help in identifying local offender groups or gangs and delineating their turf
In Rochester we have used a series of "Working Papers" to report the results of research, including incident reviews, to our working group. The Working Group reviews the research in the process of developing interventions to prevent crime. The papers linked below are examples of feedback from the Crime Incident Reviews in Rochester. These papers were used to summerize information from the reviews.
Summary After Review of all Homicides in one year