An eyeball of the data in the table showed the drastically different murder numbers by state vs the clearance rate doesn't necessarily correlate that low numbers leads to higher clearance. Of course resources are not equivalent between states to tackle the crimes so maybe that isn't unusual. I know from my state that we often hear in the news from law enforcement that number of murders is compared to the previous year and their goal is to not exceed that in the current year if possible. Seems kind of a backwards way of measuring to me. :)
I found a correlation of -0.35 between clearance rates and homicide rates, using Jeff's figures crossed with Wikipedia's. (I agree -0.35 is not a very big negative correlation.)
You never explained what is exactly meant by “clearance rate”. Thanks.
A clearance rate is basically the percent of crime that is solved.
An eyeball of the data in the table showed the drastically different murder numbers by state vs the clearance rate doesn't necessarily correlate that low numbers leads to higher clearance. Of course resources are not equivalent between states to tackle the crimes so maybe that isn't unusual. I know from my state that we often hear in the news from law enforcement that number of murders is compared to the previous year and their goal is to not exceed that in the current year if possible. Seems kind of a backwards way of measuring to me. :)
I found a correlation of -0.35 between clearance rates and homicide rates, using Jeff's figures crossed with Wikipedia's. (I agree -0.35 is not a very big negative correlation.)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OPo2Z4OSeqFGW6SJazeETirfN6Zacp-6uX6s55KY5Sg/edit?usp=sharing