Crime Changes in Baltimore, 1970-1994 (ICPSR 2352)
Version Date: Apr 4, 2008 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Ralph B. Taylor, Temple University. Department of Criminal Justice
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02352.v2
Version V2
Summary View help for Summary
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.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
A downloadable version of data for this study is available however, certain identifying information in the downloadable version may have been masked or edited to protect respondent privacy. Additional data not included in the downloadable version are available in a restricted version of this data collection. For more information about the differences between the downloadable data and the restricted data for this study, please refer to the codebook notes section of the PDF codebook. Users interested in obtaining restricted data must complete and sign a Restricted Data Use Agreement, describe the research project and data protection plan, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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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.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
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.
Study Design View help for Study Design
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.
Sample View help for Sample
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.
Universe View help for Universe
Urban Baltimore neighborhoods and their residents.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
(1) nonparticipant observation, (2) crime records of the Baltimore Police Department, (3) 1970, 1980, and 1990 United States Censuses of Population and Housing, (4) personal interviews, and (5) telephone interviews
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
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.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
The average response rate for 1982 was 87 percent. The response rate for 1994 was 76 percent.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
1998-10-08
Version History View help for Version History
- Taylor, Ralph B. Crime Changes in Baltimore, 1970-1994. ICPSR02352-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-01-24. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02352.v2
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 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 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.
1998-10-08 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.
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.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.