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Police barely ever solve crimes. Murder, the most serious crime, is hardly ever solved. There is no fixing the situation with talking to police, how would you f

by Jkvngt 6y ago

Police barely ever solve crimes. Murder, the most serious crime, is hardly ever solved. There is no fixing the situation with talking to police, how would you fix the system? It would take decades of action on the part of the police to regain the public’s trust. One wrong move by one cop, one time would reset that back to zero.

neartheplain 6y ago
That’s overstating things. Most murder cases in the US are solved. 40% aren’t, though. https://www.statista.com/statistics/194213/crime-clearance-rate-by-type-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/194213/crime-clearance-r...
- stretchcat 6y ago
  To be fair, solving a great many murders is probably a simple matter of finding the family member with literal blood on his hands and a history of domestic abuse. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure that out.
- Jkvngt 6y ago
  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566383 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566383 Seems it’s only about 22% of serious crimes which are solved. Of course the beauty of these “facts” is they differ wildly.
- vmception 6y ago
  Yeah solved with the real killer still out there. Imagine a life insurance broker that moonlights as a serial killer offing someone's spouse soon after the policy is open. The remaining spouse is going to prison for a very long time every single time.
  - stretchcat 6y ago
    I can imagine that, but I'm having a harder time imagining it to be common.
    - vmception 6y ago
      just non-negligible
- throwaway81523 6y ago
  60% of murder cases result in someone getting arrested. So we still have to ask: a) how many of those arrests result in a conviction? b) how many of those convictions are of the right person? c) and how many murders result in murder cases? A murder case basically starts with police opening a file saying "X has been murdered" and goes on from there. So if the death looks enough like accident or natural causes or suicide, no murder case is opened and it doesn't count as an uncleared murder. Therefore it wouldn't surprise me if the majority of murders (51%, anyway) are unsolved.

by Jkvngt 6y ago

neartheplain 6y ago

That’s overstating things. Most murder cases in the US are solved. 40% aren’t, though. https://www.statista.com/statistics/194213/crime-clearance-rate-by-type-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/194213/crime-clearance-r...

stretchcat 6y ago
To be fair, solving a great many murders is probably a simple matter of finding the family member with literal blood on his hands and a history of domestic abuse. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure that out.
Jkvngt 6y ago
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566383 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566383 Seems it’s only about 22% of serious crimes which are solved. Of course the beauty of these “facts” is they differ wildly.
vmception 6y ago
Yeah solved with the real killer still out there. Imagine a life insurance broker that moonlights as a serial killer offing someone's spouse soon after the policy is open. The remaining spouse is going to prison for a very long time every single time.
- stretchcat 6y ago
  I can imagine that, but I'm having a harder time imagining it to be common.
  - vmception 6y ago
    just non-negligible
throwaway81523 6y ago
60% of murder cases result in someone getting arrested. So we still have to ask: a) how many of those arrests result in a conviction? b) how many of those convictions are of the right person? c) and how many murders result in murder cases? A murder case basically starts with police opening a file saying "X has been murdered" and goes on from there. So if the death looks enough like accident or natural causes or suicide, no murder case is opened and it doesn't count as an uncleared murder. Therefore it wouldn't surprise me if the majority of murders (51%, anyway) are unsolved.