Metadata record for Crime Changes in Baltimore, 1970-1994

Crime Changes in Baltimore, 1970-1994 Taylor, Ralph B. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research ICPSR 2008-04-04 2352 doi://10.3886/ICPSR02352.v2

These data were collected to examine the relationships among crime rates, residents' attitudes, physical deterioration, and neighborhood structure in selected urban Baltimore neighborhoods. The data collection provides both block- and individual-level neighborhood data for two time periods, 1981-1982 and 1994. The block-level files (Parts 1-6) include information about physical conditions, land use, people counts, and crime rates. Parts 1-3, the block assessment files, contain researchers' observations of street layout, traffic, housing type, and general upkeep of the neighborhoods. Part 1, Block Assessments, 1981 and 1994, contains the researchers' observations of sampled blocks in 1981, plus selected variables from Part 3 that correspond to items observed in 1981. Nonsampled blocks (in Part 2) are areas where block assessments were done, but no interviews were conducted. The "people counts" file (Part 4) is an actual count of people seen by the researchers on the sampled blocks in 1994. Variables for this file include the number, gender, and approximate age of the people seen and the types of activities they were engaged in during the assessment. Part 5, Land Use Inventory for Sampled Blocks, 1994, is composed of variables describing the types of buildings in the neighborhood and their physical condition. Part 6, Crime Rates and Census Data for All Baltimore Neighborhoods, 1970-1992, includes crime rates from the Baltimore Police Department for aggravated assault, burglary, homicide, larceny, auto theft, rape, and robbery for 1970-1992, and census information from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 United States Censuses on the composition of the housing units and the age, gender, race, education, employment, and income of residents. The individual-level files (Parts 7-9) contain data from interviews with neighborhood leaders, as well as telephone surveys of residents. Part 7, Interviews with Neighborhood Leaders, 1994, includes assessments of the level of involvement in the community by the organization to which the leader belongs and the types of activities sponsored by the organization. The 1982 and 1994 surveys of residents (Parts 8 and 9) asked respondents about different aspects of their neighborhoods, such as physical appearance, problems, and crime and safety issues, as well as the respondents' level of satisfaction with and involvement in their neighborhoods. Demographic information on respondents, such as household size, length of residence, marital status, income, gender, and race, is also provided in this file.

UniverseScheme02352 Organization02352_1 93-IJ-CX-0022

These data were collected to examine the relationships among crime rates, residents' attitudes, physical deterioration, and neighborhood structure in selected urban Baltimore neighborhoods. The original 1981-1982 study was designed to model neighborhood-level responses to disorder. The purpose of the 1994 study was to see (1) how residents' reactions to crime had changed between 1982 and 1994, and (2) if either neighborhood-perceived incivilities, or neighborhood-assessed incivilities, in 1982 helped predict changes in residents' reactions to crime between 1982 and 1994, after controlling for neighborhood structure and crime.

NACJD.XIV ICPSR.XVII.E RCMD.I NACJD.II attitudes community involvement crime rates neighborhood change neighborhood conditions neighborhoods urban areas urban crime urban decline Baltimore, Maryland, United States 1970 1994 (1) Parts 1-5: Blocks and neighborhoods, (2) Part 6: Neighborhoods, (3) Parts 7-9: Individuals census/enumeration data, event/transaction data, and survey data Urban Baltimore neighborhoods and their residents.

The block-level files contain information about crime rates, physical conditions, land use, and people counts. The crime rate data consist of yearly Part I index crimes obtained from the Baltimore Police Department for all of Baltimore's 277 ecologically-defined neighborhoods, as well as end-of-decade crime rates and percentiles. Census block characteristics from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 United States Censuses are also presented. The block environment assessments and land use inventories were conducted by researchers who were given specific criteria to use in describing the physical attributes of the homes and other buildings in the neighborhoods. The people counts were performed by researchers driving around the study blocks, counting the number of people they observed and categorizing them by age, gender, and activity. To minimize the subjectivity of such assessments, the block assessments, land use inventories, and people counts were conducted by pairs of raters who individually assessed the same blocks. Reliability measures and average ratings were then calculated. The individual-level files contain surveys of residents from 1982 and 1994, as well as interviews with neighborhood leaders from 1994. The interviews for 1982 were conducted by phone, unless the respondent could not be reached that way, and all of the 1994 interviews were administered using CATI (computer-aided telephone interviewing). The community leaders' interviews were conducted in person.

Several Likert-type scales were used. In 1981, 66 neighborhoods were randomly sampled from the 236 neighborhoods in Baltimore for block assessment. In 1982, households on these blocks were selected for the resident survey through multistage random sampling. In 1994, 30 neighborhoods from the 66 chosen in 1981 were selected using stratified sampling based on crime data and availability of 1981 block physical assessment data and residential telephone numbers. Households in 1994 were selected through a series of replicate samples until the minimum block quota was reached.

ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.
Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

The average response rate for 1982 was 87 percent. The response rate for 1994 was 76 percent.

The block assessment files (Parts 1-3) contain researchers' observations of street layout, traffic, housing type, and general upkeep of the neighborhoods. Part 1, Block Assessments, 1981 and 1994, contains the researchers' observations of sampled blocks in 1981, plus selected variables from Part 3 that correspond to the items observed in 1981. Nonsampled blocks (in Part 2) are areas where block assessments were done, but no interviews were conducted. These nonsampled blocks had been assessed in 1981 and were located in the 36 neighborhoods sampled in 1981 but not in 1994. Two blocks from each of the 36 neighborhoods were sampled. The "people counts" file (Part 4) is an actual count of people seen by the researchers on the sampled blocks in 1994. Variables for this file include the number, gender, and approximate age of the people seen and the types of activities they were engaged in during the assessment. Part 5, Land Use Inventory for Sampled Blocks, 1994, is composed of variables describing the types of buildings in the neighborhood and their physical condition. Part 6, Crime Rates and Census Data for All Baltimore Neighborhoods, 1970-1992, includes crime rates from the Baltimore Police Department for aggravated assault, burglary, homicide, larceny, auto theft, rape, and robbery for 1970-1992, and census information for 1970, 1980, and 1990 on the composition of the housing units and the age, gender, race, education, employment, and income of city residents. Part 7, Interviews with Neighborhood Leaders, 1994, includes assessments of the level of involvement in the community by the organization to which the leader belonged and types of activities sponsored by the organization. The 1982 and 1994 surveys of residents (Parts 8 and 9) asked respondents about different aspects of their neighborhoods, such as physical appearance, problems, and crime and safety issues, as well as the respondents' level of satisfaction with and involvement in their neighborhoods. Demographic information on respondents, such as household size, length of residence, marital status, income, gender, and race, is also provided in this file.

ICPSR

To protect respondent privacy, certain identifying variables in Parts 8 and 9 are restricted from general dissemination. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Data Transfer Agreement Form and specify the reasons for the request. A copy of the Data Transfer Agreement Form can be requested by calling 800-999-0960 or 734-647-5000. The Data Transfer Agreement Form is also available as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file from the NACJD Web site at NACJD Web site. Completed forms should be returned to: Director, National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research, P.O. Box 1248, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, or by fax: 734-647-8200.

AVAILABLE. This study is freely available to the general public.

The original collector of the data, ICPSR, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Rearch ICPSR

Ann Arbor MI

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ netmail@icpsr.umich.edu United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice 2006-03-30 ICPSR 2006-03-30 File CB2352.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 ICPSR 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. 1999-09-15 ICPSR 1999-09-15 A new neighborhood number variable was added to Part 8 that matches the neighborhood number in the other data files, making it possible to merge this file with the other data files. StudyUnit02352

The user guide, codebook, and data collection instruments are provided 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 through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.