Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Community Survey, 1994-1995 (ICPSR 2766)

Version Date: Mar 29, 2023

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Principal Investigator(s):
Felton J. Earls, Harvard Medical School; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Scientific Director. Columbia University. Teacher's College. Center for the Study of Children and Families; Stephen W. Raudenbush, Scientific Director. University of Michigan. School of Education and Survey Research Center; Robert J. Sampson, Scientific Director. Harvard University. Department of Sociology

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02766.v4

Version V4 ()

  • V4 [2023-03-29]
  • V3 [2007-10-29] unpublished
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Alternate Title

PHDCN

Summary

The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods is an interdisciplinary study aimed at deepening society's understanding of the causes and pathways of juvenile delinquency, adult crime, substance abuse, and violence. In particular, it is a study of children's social and psychological development from birth to young adulthood in urban neighborhoods. This collection contains data from a cross-sectional survey of Chicago residents in 1994 and is the first product of an eight-year project. The survey gathered information from adult residents of Chicago on their perceptions of the neighborhoods in which they live. The survey questionnaire was a multidimensional assessment of the structural conditions and organization of the neighborhoods. Data collection consisted of a household interview of residents aged 18 and older to assess key neighborhood dimensions, including the dynamic structure of the local community, organizational and political structure, cultural values, informal social control, formal social control, and social cohesion. Variables include measures of the best and worst aspects of living in Chicago, how long residents had lived in a particular neighborhood, characteristics of their neighborhood, including types of social service agencies available, and if they would consider moving to a different neighborhood and why. Other community variables measure the relationships among neighbors, including how many neighbors a respondent would recognize, how often neighbors socialized, and how often neighbors participated in other activities together. Variables that capture neighborhood social order include respondents' perceptions of neighborhood problems such as litter, graffiti, drinking, drugs, and excessive use of force by police. Respondents were also asked about their normative beliefs regarding violence, money, and various children's behaviors. Victimization variables cover how often the respondent was the victim of a fight with a weapon, a violent argument, a gang fight, sexual assault, robbery, theft, or vandalism. Other variables measure fear of crime and attitudes toward the police. Demographic variables include age, gender, education, living arrangement, national origin, and employment status. In addition, a number of scales created by the study's scientific directors are included such as social disorder, perceived neighborhood danger, and neighborhood activism. Part 1 of this study contains individual responses to survey questions. Part 2 contains data aggregated to the neighborhood cluster (NC) level (see Study Design for explanation of NC).

Citation

Earls, Felton J., Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Raudenbush, Stephen W., and Sampson, Robert J. Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Community Survey, 1994-1995. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-03-29. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02766.v4

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (93-IJ-CX-K005), John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

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

1994

Date of Collection

1994 -- 1995

Data Collection Notes

  1. At present, only a restricted version of the data is available (see RESTRICTIONS field). A downloadable version of the data is slated to be available in the near future.

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Study Purpose

The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods is an interdisciplinary study aimed at deepening society's understanding of the causes and pathways of juvenile delinquency, adult crime, substance abuse, and violence. In particular, it is a study of children's social and psychological development from birth to young adulthood in urban neighborhoods. The project sought to answer the following questions: (1) Why does one community have a high rate of crime, violence, and substance abuse, while a similar community nearby is relatively stable? (2) What factors enable some individuals to live successful, productive lives, even in high-risk neighborhoods? (3) Why does one young person experiment only briefly with delinquency, while another goes on to a criminal career? The survey gathered information from adult residents of Chicago on their perceptions of the neighborhoods in which they live. The researchers sought to use these data to create reliable and valid measures of neighborhood social context. Researchers were interested in measuring how neighborhood social organization related to crime, violence, and victimization. They also aimed to examine how neighborhood social organization was related to social disorder, cynicism regarding the legal system, dissatisfaction with the police, and tolerance of deviance.

Study Design

The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods was designed to administer a series of cross-sectional community studies in the same area and at the same time as a comprehensive longitudinal study on risk factors and manifestations of antisocial behavior and substance abuse. The overarching goal was to complete five or more annual waves of data collection over an eight-year period for multiple age groups, employing an accelerated longitudinal design, while simultaneously studying organizational changes in the urban context in which these young people were growing up. This data collection contains the first cross-sectional survey from this project. The survey questionnaire was a multidimensional assessment by Chicago residents of the structural conditions and organization of their neighborhoods in 1994. Neighborhoods were operationally defined as 343 clusters of census tracts, referred to as "neighborhood clusters." Data collection consisted of a household interview of residents aged 18 and older to assess key neighborhood dimensions, including the dynamic structure of the local community, organizational and political structure, cultural values, informal social control, formal social control, and social cohesion. The community survey instrument included measures of perceived crime and violence in the community, ratings of social order (gang activity, graffiti, unruly teens), normative beliefs about violence, and crime-specific indicators of victimization, available resources, norms, and social organization.

Sample

Stratified random sampling.

Universe

All adult residents of Chicago in 1994.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

In Part 1, city-level variables measure the best and worst aspects of living in Chicago for the interviewed residents. Variables relating to neighborhood structure include how residents define their neighborhoods, how long they have lived in a particular neighborhood, characteristics of their neighborhood, including types of social service agencies available, and if they would consider moving to a different neighborhood and why. Other community variables measure the relationships among neighbors, including how many neighbors a respondent would recognize, how often neighbors socialized, and how often neighbors participated in other activities together. Variables that capture neighborhood social order include respondents' perceptions of neighborhood problems such as litter, graffiti, drinking, drugs, and excessive use of force by police. Respondents were also asked about their normative beliefs regarding violence, money, and various children's behaviors. Victimization variables cover how often the respondent was the victim of a fight with a weapon, a violent argument, a gang fight, sexual assault, robbery, theft, or vandalism. Other variables measure fear of crime and attitudes toward the police. Demographic variables include age, gender, education, living arrangement, national origin, and employment status. Part 2 contains Part 1 data aggregated to the neighborhood cluster (NC) level.

Response Rates

Not available.

Presence of Common Scales

Several Likert-type scales were used.

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Original Release Date

1999-12-14

Version History

2023-03-29

The following variables have been un-blanked in the Part 2 (Community-Level Data) data file:

  • OBLFAC1
  • OBLFAC2
  • OBLFAC3
  • LHOMR90
  • LHOMR95
  • MURDER95
  • HOM
  • TOTPOP
  • RVICT6MO
  • VIOLCRIM
  • CONPOV90
  • HIMMIG90
  • CONDISAD
  • IMMIG90
  • STABLE90

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:
  • Earls, Felton J., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Stephen W. Raudenbush, and Robert J. Sampson. Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Community Survey, 1994-1995. ICPSR02766-v4. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-03-29. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02766.v4

2007-10-29 New files were added for Part 1 including additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport (CPORT), SPSS system, and Stata system files. The Part 2 data file was also added.

1999-12-14 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:

  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
  • 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.

  • 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.

NACJD logo

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.