Urban Morality Issues Incidents in Ten Cities, 1990-2000: [United States] (ICPSR 3735)

Version Date: Dec 15, 2005

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Principal Investigator(s):
Elaine B. Sharp, University of Kansas

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03735.v1

Version V1

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Summary

This collection consists of data that tracked how ten city governments in the United States responded to morality issues in the last decade of the 20th century. The ten cities varied in their geographic properties and were characterized by their locations, e.g., South City, Metro City, and Coast City. Morality issues were defined as issues concerning actions or behaviors that were regulated by a deeply held belief and/or a religious value. The issues falling within this categorization were gay rights, abortion rights, abortion clinic protests, needle exchange programs for drug users, hate speech, hate groups, gambling policies and regulations, animal rights, and regulations pertaining to the sex industry, which included pornography, prostitution, and adult entertainment. Incidents or events in the ten cities related to these moral issues were identified. The data were generated by scanning local newspapers to isolate and gather relevant information about the selected cities, interviewing political elites (e.g., mayor, city manager, and council person), and reviewing public government records for the selected cities. Part 1, Ten City Data, contains data on 451 incidents related to morality issues in the ten cities. Part 2, Subset of Ten City Data With City-Specific Variables, is a subset of the cases included in Part 1 and also includes a broader array of city-specific contextual variables. The variables shared by Part 1 and Part 2 are whether a city had a mayor or a city manager, whether city council elections were at-large or by district, the percentage or share of the city council elected by a particular district, the strength and prevalence of the city's homosexual community, the percentage of residents in the county who attended religious services, the percentage of residents in the county who identified themselves as Catholic or as religious fundamentalists, and whether activists involved with this issue were more likely to be from the left or right, politically. Additional shared variables are city population in 1990 and 1998 (in thousands), the percentage of population change between 1980-1990 and 1990-1998, the metro area population in 1990 (in thousands), the percentage of population change in the metro area from 1980-1990 and from 1990-1996, the percentage of female, Asian, White, Black, and Hispanic residents, the median household income, the percentage of married residents, the percentage of female-headed households, the 1997 unemployment rate, the percentage of same gender partnerships, the total number of churches, the number of churches per capita, the percentage of households with children under the age of 19, the percentage of the population aged 18-34, the percentage of residents that were college educated, income per capita, the percentage of foreign-born residents, the percentage of residents living in poverty, and the acceptability and prevalence of the city's "unconventional" or "counter" culture. The variables contained only in Part 2, Subset of Ten City Data With City-Specific Variables, are the type of community education present, the type of social culture in the community, the percentage of the work force employed in education or technology related jobs, the percentage of women in the work force, and the total number of churches in the county.

Citation

Sharp, Elaine B. Urban Morality Issues Incidents in Ten Cities, 1990-2000:  [United States]    . [distributor], 2005-12-15. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03735.v1

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Funding

National Science Foundation (9904482)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of an person or establishment is prohibited.

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Time Period(s)

1990 -- 2000

Date of Collection

1999-06 -- 2001-06

Data Collection Notes

  1. Those who make use of these data should acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation (9904482). Copies of all papers written on the basis of these data should be sent to Elaine B. Sharp.

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Sample

Ten of the 52 cities with populations greater or equal to 300,000 were selected. The ten cities were selected based on the following criteria: (a) each city had to be +/- 0.75 standard deviation from the mean percentage of population in non-family households, (b) each city had to be +/- 0.75 standard deviation from the mean percentage of population change, and (c) within the group, a city contributed to maximizing the variation between governmental structures.

Universe

Cities within the United States with populations of at least 300,000 people. At the time of the study, there were 52 cities with populations of 300,000 or greater.

Data Source

newspaper files, personal interviews, and documentary evidence

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

2004-06-10

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:
  • Sharp, Elaine B. URBAN MORALITY ISSUES INCIDENTS IN TEN CITIES, 1990-2000: [UNITED STATES]. ICPSR03735-v1. Lawrence, KS: Elaine B. Sharp, University of Kansas [producer], 2002. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03735.v1

2005-12-15 On 2005-08-15 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 2005-12-15 to reflect these additions.

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Notes