Citation

Snook B, Luther K, House JC, Bennell C, Taylor PJ. Crim. Justice Behav. 2012; 39(5): 607-619.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0093854811435208

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The interrater reliability of an internationally renowned crime linkage system--the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS)--was tested. Police officers (N = 10) were presented with a case file and asked to complete a ViCLAS booklet. The level of occurrence agreement between each officer was calculated.

RESULTS showed a 30.77% level of agreement across the 106 variables examined. Agreement ranged from 2.36% for weapon variables to 62.87% for administration variables. Only 11 (10.38%) of the variables reached an acceptable level of agreement. Concerns pertaining to the validity of inferences produced using ViCLAS data are discussed, along with potential explanations for the findings, limitations of the study, and future research directions.

Language: en