Why do murders go unsolved?
There are approximately 16,000 murders annually in the United States, with an average closure rate of 63% nationally. That means that every day in this country, 16 murders occur that will never be solved. Murders go unsolved for many reasons – lack of or uncooperative witnesses, the offender did not leave any evidence behind, etc. No detective wants to leave a case unsolved, but despite their best efforts, some cases will just not close. What does it mean when a case is closed? The law enforcement partners of the Violent Crimes Case Review Project (VCCRP) at the California State University, Fresno, follow the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) standards when it reports that a homicide case is “closed”. It can bet a bit confusing, but just because a case is marked “closed” does not mean that the investigation is finished. According to the UCR, homicides can be closed one of two ways – by arrest or by “exceptional” or “administrative” closure. Arrest
