Dissertation
Homicide Investigations in an Age of Austerity
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004430
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/118846
Abstract
Stories about homicides dominate the news and the number of fictional depictions of police investigations into them seem to multiple each year. However, we know little about what a real-life, routine homicide investigation entails. Academic inquiry into the topic is dominated by quantitative studies which attempt to identify what factors influence whether a case is cleared, but many of these are restricted to an assessment of the impact of situational factors, or case characteristics. A number of recently published qualitative studies have delved deeper into the topic, exploring through interviews with detectives, the impact of organizational factors such as staffing and workload, areas that are difficult to accurately conceptualize into a statistical model. This thesis adds to the qualitative literature by exploring the impact that government introduced austerity measures had on the ability of homicide detectives in London to solve murders. Twenty-one, in-depth interviews were completed with serving homicide detectives which explored their views on austerity and its impact on how homicide investigations were completed. The themes that emerged centered around factors that were within organizational control with officers believing that decisions made by senior leaders have more of an impact on their ability to do their job effectively than any government introduced austerity measures.
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Details
- Title
- Homicide Investigations in an Age of Austerity
- Creators
- Anna Deighton
- Contributors
- Melanie-Angela Neuilly (Advisor)Dale Willits (Committee Member)David Makin (Committee Member)Michelle Wright (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 244
- Identifiers
- 99900883240301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation