Identifying links among serial sexual crimes
This study focuses on obtaining a better understanding of the amount of data required by a crime linkage system to identify serial violent crimes. The key objective of the research was to empirically test and discuss the relevance of reducing the content necessary to use these tools. Data for the current study was extracted from a French violent crime linkage database (ViCLAS). Analysis focused on the most used variables in the context of a sexual assault. Descriptive and factorial analysis were used to identify what kind of information is collected by the police and how it could be reduced by aggregating correlated data. Findings show that approximately 65 % of the types of information collected are used in less than 5 % of sexual assault cases. Results of factorial analysis show that it is possible to drastically reduce the information needed to use the tool effectively. Practical implications of these findings for sexual assault investigations are discussed.