Receiver operating characteristic curves in the crime linkage context: Benefits, limitations, and recommendations

Deciding whether two crimes have been committed by the same offender or different offenders is an important investigative task. Crime linkage researchers commonly use receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to assess the accuracy of linkage decisions. Accuracy metrics derived from ROC analysis—such as the area under the curve (AUC)—offer certain advantages, but also have limitations. This paper describes the benefits that crime linkage researchers attribute to the AUC. We also discuss several limitations in crime linkage papers that rely on the AUC. We end by presenting suggestions for researchers who use ROC analysis to report on crime linkage. These suggestions aim to enhance the information presented to readers, derive more meaningful conclusions from analyses, and propose more informed recommendations for practitioners involved in crime linkage tasks. Our reflections may also benefit researchers from other areas of psychology who use ROC analysis in a wide range of prediction tasks.