A study I conducted some 40 years ago may be relevant to current debates about police investigating crime. The study, originally published in (1979) Crim LR 203, has been made accessible by Sweet & Maxwell.
The study was based on the prosecution papers in 150 cases involving 286 defendants tried at the Old Bailey. The charges in the sample cases included the full range—murder, manslaughter, blackmail, rape, incest, arson, robbery (from banks and warehouses as well as in person), theft, handling stolen goods, forgery, various forms of violence, and drugs. 222 of the defendants pleaded guilty or were found guilty. Three-fifths (61%) were given immediate custodial sentences.
How did the police first hear of the offence?
There were 133 cases in which it was possible to discover an answer to this question. In almost half the cases (43%), they were called by the victim. In over a third (35%) they were called by a witness, a relative
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