Crime-Induced Business Relocations in the Austin [Texas] Metropolitan Area, 1995-1996 (ICPSR 3078)

Version Date: Mar 30, 2006

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Principal Investigator(s):
David Lynch Huff, University of Texas at Austin, Graduate School of Business; James E. Jarrett, University of Texas at Austin, Graduate School of Business

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03078.v1

Version V1

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Summary

There were three key objectives to this study: (1) to determine the relative importance of crime-related as well as business-related factors in business relocation decisions, including business ownership, type of business, and business size, (2) to ascertain how businesses respond to crime and fear of crime, such as by moving, adding more security, requesting police protection, or cooperating with other businesses, and (3) to identify the types of crime prevention measures and assistance that businesses currently need and to assess the roles of business associations and police departments in providing enhanced crime prevention assistance. From November 1995 through February 1996 a mail survey was distributed to a sample of three different groups of businesses in Austin's 14 highest crime ZIP codes. The groups consisted of: (1) businesses that remained within the same ZIP code between 1990 and 1993, (2) new firms that either moved into a high-crime ZIP code area between 1990 and 1993 or were created in a high-crime ZIP code between 1990 and 1993, and (3) businesses that relocated from high-crime ZIP code areas to other locations in Austin's metropolitan area or elsewhere in Texas. Variables include type of business, ownership of business, number of employees, reasons for moving or staying in neighborhood, types of crime that affected business, owner's response to business crime, customer safety, and the role of business associations and the police in preventing crime.

Citation

Huff, David Lynch, and Jarrett, James E. Crime-Induced Business Relocations in the Austin [Texas] Metropolitan Area, 1995-1996. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2006-03-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03078.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (94-IJ-CX-0035)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

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

1995 -- 1996

Date of Collection

1995-11 -- 1996-02

Data Collection Notes

  1. The user guide, codebook, and data collection instruments are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. 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.

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Study Purpose

Historically, business location decisions have been analyzed and decided on the basis of predominantly economic criteria. While that still appears to be the case, an increasing number of businesses and business owners may be considering crime as a factor in making business relocation decisions. There were three key objectives to this study: (1) to determine the relative importance of crime-related as well as business-related factors in business relocation decisions, including business ownership, type of business, and business size, (2) to ascertain how businesses respond to crime and fear of crime, such as by moving, adding more security, requesting police protection, or cooperating with other businesses, and (3) to identify the types of crime prevention information and assistance that businesses currently need and to assess the roles of business associations and police departments in providing enhanced crime prevention assistance.

Study Design

From November 1995 through February 1996 a mail survey was distributed to a sample of three different groups of businesses in Austin's 14 highest crime ZIP codes. The groups consisted of: (1) businesses that remained within the same ZIP code between 1990 and 1993, (2) new firms that either moved into a high-crime ZIP code area between 1990 and 1993 or were created in a high-crime ZIP code between 1990 and 1993, and (3) businesses that relocated from high-crime ZIP code areas to other locations in Austin's metropolitan area or elsewhere in Texas.

Sample

Random sampling.

Universe

All businesses in the Austin, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Unit(s) of Observation

Businesses.

Data Source

mailback questionnaires

Data Type(s)

Description of Variables

Variables include type of business, ownership of business, number of employees, reasons for moving or staying in neighborhood, types of crime that affected business, owner's response to business crime, customer safety, and the role of business associations and the police in preventing crime.

Response Rates

The overall response rate was 18 percent. The response rate was 15 percent for Movers (Part 1), 15 percent for New Businesses (Part 2), and 22 percent for Stayers (Part 3).

Presence of Common Scales

Several Likert-type scales were used.

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Original Release Date

2001-10-01

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:
  • Huff, David Lynch, and James E. Jarrett. Crime-Induced Business Relocations in the Austin [Texas] Metropolitan Area, 1995-1996. ICPSR03078-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-01-31. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03078.v1

2006-03-30 File CB3078.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File UG3078.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.

2001-10-01 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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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.