Neighborhood Violence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1996-2007 (ICPSR 28441)

Version Date: Sep 24, 2012

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Principal Investigator(s):
Jeremy M. Wilson, Michigan State University, and RAND Corporation; Steven M. Chermak, Michigan State University; Edmund F. McGarrell, Michigan State University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR28441.v1

Version V1

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Summary

This study assessed the implementation and impact of the One Vision One Life (OVOL) violence-prevention strategy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2003, the rise in violence in Pittsburgh prompted community leaders to form the Allegheny County Violence Prevention Imitative, which became the OVOL program. The OVOL program sought to prevent violence using a problem-solving, data-driven model to inform how community organizations and outreach teams respond to homicide incidents. The research team examined the impact of the OVOL program on violence using a quasi-experimental design to compare violence trends in the program's target areas before and after implementation to (1) trends in Pittsburgh neighborhoods where One Vision was not implemented, and (2) trends in specific nontarget neighborhoods whose violence and neighborhood dynamics One Vision staff contended were most similar to those of target neighborhoods. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police provided the violent-crime data, which the research team aggregated into monthly counts. The Pittsburgh Department of City Planning provided neighborhood characteristics data, which were extracted from the 2000 Census. Monthly data were collected on 90 neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1996 to 2007, resulting in 12,960 neighborhood-by-month observations.

Citation

Wilson, Jeremy M., Chermak, Steven M., and McGarrell, Edmund F. Neighborhood Violence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1996-2007. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2012-09-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR28441.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2006-IJ-CX-0030), Richard King Mellon Foundation

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Neighborhood

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1996 -- 2007

Date of Collection

2007 -- 2009

Data Collection Notes

  1. The research team also collected information from clients in the One Vision One Life program through intake forms completed by OVOL community coordinators, conducted field observations and interviews with One Vision staff and key community stakeholders, and obtained community risk-assessment documents. However, these data are not available as a part of this data collection.

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Study Purpose

The research team sought to determine how and to what extent the One Vision One Life (OVOL) violence-prevention strategy was implemented and examine the impact OVOL had on violence in the targeted and surrounding communities.

Study Design

The research team examined the impact of the One Vision One Life (OVOL) program on violence using a quasi-experimental design to compare violence trends in the program's target areas before and after implementation to (1) trends in Pittsburgh neighborhoods where One Vision was not implemented, and (2) trends in specific nontarget neighborhoods whose violence and neighborhood dynamics One Vision staff contended were most similar to those of target neighborhoods. Specifically, the principal investigators examined the impact of One Vision on community violence using three measures: homicides, aggravated assaults, and aggravated assaults with a gun. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police provided incident-level data for homicides occurring between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2007, as well as for aggravated assaults and gun assaults between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 2007. The research team aggregated these data into monthly counts. The Pittsburgh Department of City Planning provided neighborhood characteristics data, which were extracted from the United States Census Bureau's Census 2000.

Sample

Monthly data were collected on 90 neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1996 to 2007, resulting in 12,960 neighborhood-by-month observations.

Time Method

Time Series

Universe

All neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1996-2007.

Unit(s) of Observation

Neighborhood, by month and year.

Data Source

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police provided the violent-crime data.

The Pittsburgh Department of City Planning provided the neighborhood characteristics data which were extracted from the United States Census Bureau's Census 2000.

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The study contains a total of 167 variables including date variables, violent crime variables, and neighborhood characteristics variables. Date variables include month and year indicators. Violent crime variables include the monthly number of homicides, aggravated assaults, and aggravated assaults with a gun. Neighborhood characteristics variables include various socioeconomic and demographic measures such as the density of the neighborhood, the labor force indicators, the age and income level of the neighborhood population, the number of persons receiving public assistance, the percentage of housing units that are vacant, and the proportion of the population that moved to their current residence in the previous five years.

Response Rates

Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales

None.

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Original Release Date

2012-09-24

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Wilson, Jeremy M., Steven M. Chermak, and Edmund F. McGarrell. Neighborhood Violence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1996-2007. ICPSR28441-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2012-09-24. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR28441.v1

2012-09-24 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.
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Weight

None.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.