Assessing Solvability Factors in Greater Manchester, England: The Case of Residential Burglaries

This study replicates Eck’s (Solving crimes: The investigation of burglary and robbery. Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1979) Burglary Investigation Decision Model together and the Felony Investigation Decision Model developed by Greenberg et al. (Felony investigation decision model—An analysis of investigation elements of information. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC: U.S, 1977). A total of 400 burglary crimes from one year—200 detected burglaries and then compared to a random sample of 200 undetected burglaries—were used in the analysis, including 77 burglaries where violence has been used against the occupiers. Despite the passage of time, Eck’s (Solving crimes: The investigation of burglary and robbery. Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1979) variables analyzed here were also found to be associated with higher clearance rates of burglary in Greater Manchester in 2008/9—however, not as robustly when burglaries with violence are analysed separately. Forensic evidence—footprints and fingerprints, for example—were not found to be associated with higher clearance rates.