Effects of Different Types of Forensic Evidence on Arrest Probability: Toward a New Typology of Evidence

Forensic evidence is an important component in criminal justice decision - making. Yet, few studies have examined the effectiveness of the various macro - types of forensic evidence in facilitating arrest. This article analyzed over 4000 case files from five cities to determine how the collection and analysis of three macro - types of forensic evidence (Classification, Identification, and Progenitor) affect the probability of arrest across five different crime types. The results of several sets of logistic regression analyses suggest that forensic evidence affects the probability of arrest, but that the impact is not consistent across different types of crime or macro - types of forensic evidence. These findings suggest that the standard practice of dichotomizing forensic evidence collection to determine its effectiveness obscures how the macro - types of forensic evidence correlate with the odds of arrest differently across crime types