Crime linkage practice in New Zealand

Crime linkage practice in New Zealand Matt Tonkin, Martin Joseph Weeks Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.63-76 The purpose of this paper is to understand (i) how crime linkage is currently performed with residential burglaries in New Zealand, (ii) the factors that promote/hinder accurate crime linkage and (iii)whether computerised decision-support tools might assist crime linkage practice. A total of 39 New Zealand Police staff completed a questionnaire/interview/focus group relating to the process, challenges, products and uses of crime linkage with residential burglary in New Zealand. These data (alongside four redacted crime linkage reports) were subjected to thematic analysis. The data clearly indicated wide variation in crime linkage process, methods and products (Theme 1). Furthermore, a number of factors were identified that impacted on crime linkage practice (Theme 2). Future research should develop computerised crime linkage decision-support tools and evaluate their ability to enhance crime linkage practice. Also, researchers should explore the use of crime linkage in court proceedings. To overcome the barriers identified in the current study, greater training in and understanding of crime linkage is needed. Moreover, efforts to enhance the quality of crime data recorded by the police will only serve to enhance crime linkage practice. By enhancing crime linkage practice, opp...
Source: Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - Category: Criminology Authors: Source Type: research