MyData:What Is MyData? | Login/Account Info | Download Saved Files | Logout

NACJD home 

Description & Citation--Study No. 3260

Bibliographic Description

ICPSR Study No.:3260
 
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03260
 
Title:Spatial Analysis of Crime in Appalachia [United States], 1977-1996
 
Principal Investigator(s):James G. Cameron, United States Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice
 
Funding Agency:United States Department of Justice. National Institute of Justice.
 
Grant Number:99-LT-VX-0001
 
Bibliographic Citation:Cameron, James G. SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF CRIME IN APPALACHIA [UNITED STATES], 1977-1996 [Computer file]. ICPSR version. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice, National Institute of Justice [producer], 2001. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2001. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03260
 

Scope of Study

Summary:This research project was designed to demonstrate the contributions that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis procedures can make to the study of crime patterns in a largely nonmetropolitan region of the United States. The project examined the extent to which the relationship between various structural factors and crime varied across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan locations in Appalachia over time. To investigate the spatial patterns of crime, a georeferenced dataset was compiled at the county level for each of the 399 counties comprising the Appalachian region. The data came from numerous secondary data sources, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, the Decennial Census of the United States, the Department of Agriculture, and the Appalachian Regional Commission. Data were gathered on the demographic distribution, change, and composition of each county, as well as other socioeconomic indicators. The dependent variables were index crime rates derived from the Uniform Crime Reports, with separate variables for violent and property crimes. These data were integrated into a GIS database in order to enhance the research with respect to: (1) data integration and visualization, (2) exploratory spatial analysis, and (3) confirmatory spatial analysis and statistical modeling. Part 1 contains variables for Appalachian subregions, Beale county codes, distress codes, number of families and households, population size, racial and age composition of population, dependency ratio, population growth, number of births and deaths, net migration, education, household composition, median family income, male and female employment status, and mobility. Part 2 variables include county identifiers plus numbers of total index crimes, violent index crimes, property index crimes, homicides, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts annually from 1977 to 1996.
 
Subject Term(s):crime mapping, crime patterns, crime reporting, demographic characteristics, geographic information systems
 
Geographic Coverage:United States
 
Time Period:1977 - 1996
 
Date(s) of Collection:1999
 
Unit of Observation:Counties.
 
Universe:All counties comprising the Appalachian region.
 
Data Type:aggregate data
 
Data Collection Notes:The user guide and codebook are provided by ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.
 

Methodology

Data Source:Data were obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, the Decennial Census of the United States, the Department of Agriculture, and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
 
Mode of Data Collection:Data were obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, the Decennial Census of the United States, the Department of Agriculture, and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
 
Response Rates:Not applicable.
 
Presence of Common Scales:None.
 
Extent of Processing:Missing data codes were standardized by ICPSR. ICPSR checked for undocumented codes, produced a codebook, generated SAS and SPSS data definition statements, and reformatted the data.
 

Access and Availability

Note:A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.
 
Original ICPSR Release:2001-10-01
 
Version History:The last update of this study occurred on 2006-03-30.
 
  2006-03-30 - File CB3260.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.
 
  2005-11-04 - On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.
 
Dataset(s):
  • DS1: Demographic Data
  • DS2: Crime Data
 

 

NACJD