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Description & Citation--Study No. 6565 | |
Bibliographic Description | |
| ICPSR Study No.: | 6565 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Extended National Assessment Survey of Law Enforcement Anti-Gang Information Resources, 1993-1994 |
| Principal Investigator(s): | G. David Curry, University of Missouri-St. Louis. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice |
| Richard A. Ball, University of Missouri-St. Louis. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice | |
| Scott H. Decker, University of Missouri-St. Louis. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice | |
| Funding Agency: | United States Department of Justice. National Institute of Justice. |
| Grant Number: | 93-IJ-CX-0040 |
| Bibliographic Citation: | Curry, G. David, Richard A. Ball, and Scott H. Decker. EXTENDED NATIONAL ASSESSMENT SURVEY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT ANTI-GANG INFORMATION RESOURCES, 1993-1994 [Computer file]. ICPSR06565-v1. St. Louis, MO: University of Missouri-St. Louis, Dept. of Criminology and Criminal Justice [producer], 1994. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1996. |
Scope of Study | |
| Summary: | This survey extended a 1992 survey (NATIONAL ASSESSMENT SURVEY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT ANTI-GANG INFORMATION RESOURCES, 1990-1992 [ICPSR 6237]) in two ways: (1) by updating the information on the 122 municipalities included in the 1992 survey, and (2) by including data on all cities in the United States ranging in population from 150,000 to 200,000 and including a random sample of 284 municipalities ranging in population from 25,000 to 150,000. Gang crime problems were defined in the same manner as in the 1992 survey, i.e., a gang (1) was identified by the police as a ''gang,'' (2) participated in criminal activity, and (3) involved youth in its membership. As in the 1992 survey, a letter was sent to the senior law enforcement departmental administrator of each agency describing the nature of the survey. For jurisdictions included in the 1992 survey, the letter listed the specific information that had been provided in the 1992 survey and identified the departmental representative who provided the 1992 data. The senior law enforcement administrator was asked to report whether a gang crime problem existed within the jurisdiction in 1994. If a problem was reported, the administrator was asked to identify a representative of the department to provide gang crime statistics and a representative who was most knowledgeable on anti-gang field operations. Annual statistics on gang-related crime were then solicited from the departmental statistical representative. Variables include city, state, ZIP code, and population category of the police department, and whether the department reported a gang problem in 1994. Data on the number of gangs, gang members, and gang-related incidents reported by the police department are also provided. If actual numbers were not provided by the police department, estimates of the number of gangs, gang members, and gang-related incidents were calculated by sampling category. |
| Subject Term(s): | cities, crime, gang membership, gang violence, gangs, police departments, youths |
| Geographic Coverage: | United States |
| Time Period: | 1993 - 1994 |
| Date(s) of Collection: | 1994 |
| Unit of Observation: | Police departments. |
| Universe: | Police departments in cities with populations over 25,000 and 11 counties in the United States. |
| Data Type: | survey data |
| Data Collection Notes: | The data collection instrument is provided as an electronic image file in Portable Document File (PDF) format. The PDF format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using the Adobe Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Adobe Reader is provided in the README file on the diskettes and through the NACJD Web Pages on the Internet. The data collection instrument is also available in hardcopy form upon request from ICPSR. |
Methodology | |
| Purpose of the Study: | The 1994 national-level survey of law enforcement information on gang-related crime extended a 1992 survey (NATIONAL ASSESSMENT SURVEY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT ANTI-GANG INFORMATION RESOURCES, 1990-1992 [ICPSR 6237]) in two ways: (1) chronologically, the study updated information on the 122 municipalities included in the 1992 survey, and (2) geographically, the study was extended to include data on all cities in the United States ranging in population from 150,000 to 200,000 and to include a random sample of 284 of the 1,126 municipalities ranging in population from 25,000 to 150,000. |
| Study Design: | As much as possible, the 1994 survey replicated procedures for gathering data used in the 1992 survey. Gang crime problems were defined in the same manner as in the 1992 survey, i.e., a gang (1) was identified by the police as a ''gang,'' (2) participated in criminal activity, and (3) involved youth in its membership. As in the 1992 survey, a letter was sent to the senior law enforcement departmental administrator of each agency describing the nature of the survey. For jurisdictions included in the 1992 survey, the letter listed the specific information that had been provided in the 1992 survey and identified the departmental representative who provided the 1992 data. Each letter was accompanied by a letter of support for the survey from an NIJ official. The senior law enforcement administrator, usually a chief of police or police commissioner, was asked to report whether a gang crime problem existed within the jurisdiction in 1994. If a problem was reported, the administrator was asked to identify a representative of the department to provide gang crime statistics and a representative who was most knowledgeable on anti-gang field operations. Sometimes this was the same individual, but more often separate departmental representatives were identified. Annual statistics on gang-related crime were then solicited from the departmental statistical representative. |
| Sample: | To extend the 1992 survey systematically to encompass a broader geographic range of United States cities, the 1994 survey included all cities with populations over 150,000. Therefore, to the 76 cities with populations over 200,000 and the 17 cities with populations of 150,000 to 200,000 surveyed in 1992, an additional 22 cities within the population range of 150,000 to 200,000 were added. In addition, a random sample of cities with populations between 25,000 and 150,000 was constructed. From 1,126 cities, 284 jurisdictions were selected. The 31 remaining smaller cities included in the 1992 study were excluded from selection in this random sample. The researchers determined that this sample size provided estimates of the population parameters that fell within a 5 percent error range. Only the 11 counties that had provided some kind of gang information in the 1992 survey were recontacted for the 1994 survey since the primary focus of the 1992 and 1994 surveys was municipal police departments. The 1992 county list was selected from the list of counties contacted by Spergel and Curry in an earlier survey (NATIONAL YOUTH GANG INTERVENTION AND SUPPRESSION SURVEY, 1980-1987 [ICPSR 9792]). Counties for which data were not obtained in 1994 are Genessee, Leon, Orange, Pima, and Sacramento. Two counties not included in the 1992 survey, Alameda and Maricopa, were included in the 1994 survey because they were identified as providing law enforcement services to smaller municipalities selected in the random sample of cities with populations of 25,000 to 150,000. |
| Data Source: | telephone interviews |
| Mode of Data Collection: | Instead of using a traditional data collection survey instrument, telephone surveyors worked from a one-page table. A customized form was faxed to respondents if requested. |
| Description of Variables: | Variables include city, state, ZIP code, and population category of the police department, and whether the department reported a gang problem in 1994. Data on the number of gangs, gang members, and gang-related incidents reported by the police department are also provided. If actual numbers were not provided by the police department, estimates of the number of gangs, gang members, and gang-related incidents were calculated by sampling category. |
| Response Rates: | Not available. |
| Presence of Common Scales: | None. |
| Extent of Processing: | Missing data codes were standardized by the Data Producer/Principal Investigator. Data were reformatted by ICPSR. Checks for undocumented codes were performed by ICPSR. ICPSR produced a codebook and generated SAS and SPSS data definition statements for this collection. |
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: | 1997-02-13 |
| Version History: | The last update of this study occurred on 2005-11-04. |
| 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. | |
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