Snook, Brent and Luther, Kirk and House, John and Bennell, Craig and Taylor, Paul (2012) The violent crime linkage analysis system : a test of interrater reliability. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 39 (5). pp. 607-619. ISSN 0093-8548
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.