Impact of Immigration on Ethnic-Specific Violence in Miami, Florida, 1997 (ICPSR 3872)
Version Date: Nov 4, 2005 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Ramiro Jr. Martinez, Florida International University
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03872.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
Does the rate of violent victimization differ across race and ethnic groups? In an effort to answer this question, this study sought to examine the violent victimization rate and the factors influencing ethnic-specific rates of violence in the city of Miami. Administrative data were obtained from the United States Bureau of the Census and the Miami Police Department Research Unit. For the groups of people identified as Afro Americans, Latinos, and Haitians, the numbers who were victims of aggravated assault and robbery in 1997 are included along with the assault and robbery rates for each group. The remaining variables are the percent of female-headed households, percent below poverty line, percent of young males out of the labor force and unemployed, residential instability, vacant and household instability, and the percent of 1980-1990 immigrants.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
census tract
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Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
Does the rate of violent victimization differ across race and ethnic groups? Researchers of urban social problems continue to struggle with this question. The racial and ethnic composition of urban America has changed as a result in large part of increased immigration over the past 20 years, requiring researchers to acknowledge the growth of Latino, Asian, and Afro-Caribbean neighborhoods--many of which are in high crime and high poverty areas. Despite the growth of studies on race and violence over the past two decades that have examined this linkage at the national, metropolitan, and city levels, this issue remains largely overlooked at the neighborhood level. Many studies of Black or White violence are no longer reflections of the nature of racial and ethnic population compositions in many urban communities. The contextual factors that shape neighborhood-level violence have become important to identify since these influences might vary when accounting for racial and ethnic differences in violent crime, even within a single city. This study examined the violent victimization rate and the factors influencing ethnic-specific rates of violence for armed robbery and aggravated assault in the city of Miami. The objective was to better inform analyses of violent crime by outlining the basic contours of race/ethnicity (Latino, African American,and Haitian) in a primarily immigrant city by focusing on serious reported non-lethal violence.
Study Design View help for Study Design
The primary unit of observation for this study was the census tract, or more specifically, the 70 census tracts in the city of Miami that are comprised of 500 or more residents. Census tracts were used as neighborhood proxies because research has shown they are the best unit of analysis below the city level to study the race and violence connection. The minimum population requirement was imposed to help stabilize rates of violence crime and avoid the inclusion of small islands in Biscayne Bay with few residents or containing upscale high-rise hotels or condominiums. Administrative records data were obtained from the United States Bureau of the Census, which provided the 1990 census tract data. These data provide detailed demographic information such as the number of residents, the percentage of tract population living below the poverty level, racial and ethnic composition, and a host of other information. The data for all reported robberies and aggravated assaults for 1997 was obtained from the city of Miami Police Department Research Unit. The address for each incident and victim race, surname, age, and gender were provided in a raw data file, geocoded into the census tract in which they occurred, aggregated to the tract level, and merged with the census tract information.
Sample View help for Sample
The city of Miami was purposively chosen as the city most suited for this study. Researchers chose Miami because it provided an excellent opportunity to examine the race/ethnicity and violence linkage in a high violence city with a racially and ethnically diverse population and a large immigrant population.
Universe View help for Universe
The 70 census tracts in the city of Miami, Florida.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
Data were collected from the United States Bureau of Census and the Miami Police Department Research Unit.
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
For the groups of people identified as Afro Americans, Latinos, and Haitians, the number who were victims of aggravated assault and robbery in 1997 are included along with the assault and robbery rates for each group. The remaining variables are the percent of female-headed households, percent below poverty line, percent of young males out of the labor force and unemployed, residential instability, vacant and household instability, and the percent of 1980-1990 immigrants.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Not applicable.
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
None.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2004-02-27
Version History View help for Version History
- Martinez, Ramiro, Jr. IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION ON ETHNIC- SPECIFIC VIOLENCE IN MIAMI, FLORIDA, 1997. ICPSR version. North Miami, FL: Florida International University [producer], 2003. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03872.v1
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.
2004-02-27 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:
- 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.
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.