Spatial Analysis of Rare Crimes: Homicides in Chicago, Illinois, 1989-1991 (ICPSR 4079)
Version Date: Mar 30, 2006 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Avinash Singh Bhati, Urban Institute, Justice Policy Center
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04079.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
This project's main goal was to develop an analytical framework that could be used for analysis of rare crimes observed at local (intra-city) levels of geographic aggregation. To demonstrate the application of this framework to a real-world issue, this project analyzed the occurrence of different types of homicide at both the census tract and neighborhood cluster level in Chicago. Homicide counts for Chicago's 865 census tracts for 1989-1991 were obtained from HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR 6399), Part 1: Victim Level Data. The types of homicide examined were gang-related, instrumental, family-related expressive, known person expressive, stranger expressive, and other. Demographic and socioeconomic data at the census tract level for the year 1990 were obtained from the Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB) at the Urban Institute. Part 1 contains these data, as initially obtained, at the census tract level. Part 2 contains an aggregated version of the same data for Chicago's 343 neighborhood clusters as defined by the Project on Human Development in Chicago's Neighborhoods.
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Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
census tracts
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.
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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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The user guide and codebook 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.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
This project's main goal was to develop an analytical framework that could be used for analysis of rare crimes observed at local (intra-city) levels of geographic aggregation. To demonstrate the application of this framework to a real-world issue, this project analyzed the occurrence of different types of homicide at both the census tract and neighborhood cluster level in Chicago. For the years of the study Chicago had 865 census tracts and 343 neighborhood clusters as defined by the Project on Human Development in Chicago's Neighborhoods. The types of homicide examined were gang-related, instrumental, family-related expressive, known person expressive, stranger expressive, and other. The study asked (1) How do the socio-economic and demographic characteristics in an area affect the number of homicides that a community can expect to experience? (2) To what extent are these links specific to homicide type? and (3) Does the strength of these links depend on whether the census tract or neighborhood cluster is the geographic unit used in the analysis?
Study Design View help for Study Design
Homicide counts for Chicago's 865 census tracts for 1989-1991 were obtained from HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR 6399), Part 1: Victim Level Data. The homicides were originally classified into ten categories: gang-related, sexual assault, instrumental, spousal attack, child abuse, other family expressive, other known expressive, stranger expressive, other, and mystery. For the purposes of this study the sexual assault, child abuse, and other family expressive were collapsed into a family-related expressive category and homicides classified as sexual assault or mystery were added to the category called other. Demographic and socioeconomic data at the census tract level were obtained from the Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB) at the Urban Institute for the year 1990 (or as close as possible to it). Data in the NCDB are based on information gathered by the United States Census Bureau in its decennial censuses. Part 1 contains these data, as initially obtained, at the census tract level. Part 2 contains these data aggregated up to the neighborhood cluster level. The mapping of the census tracts to the relevant neighborhood clusters was obtained from staff at the Project on Human Development in Chicago's Neighborhoods and was used with their permission. Some census tracts had missing information for some of the demographic and socioeconomic variables. This project used simple mean imputations to replace missing values at the census tract level. Missing values for a variable in a given census tract were set equal to the mean of non-missing values for all census tracts in the same neighborhood cluster as the census tract missing the desired information. This resulted in a sample with no missing information at the census tract level. As a result, when aggregating to the neighborhood cluster level, no missing data imputations needed to be performed.
Sample View help for Sample
inap.
Universe View help for Universe
Part 1: Chicago's 1990 census tracts. Part 2: Chicago's neighborhood clusters as defined by the Project on Human Development in Chicago's Neighborhoods.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
Data on homicide counts were obtained from HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR 6399), Part 1: Victim Level Data. Data on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics were obtained from the Neighborhood Change Database maintained by the Urban Institute.
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Part 1 contains the following information for each of Chicago's census tracts: counts of all homicides, gang-related homicides, instrumental homicides, family homicides, known person homicides, stranger homicides, other homicides, hispanics as a percentage of the population, blacks as a percentage of the population, percent of female-headed households with kids, unemployment rate, poverty rate, percent of nonfamily households, young males as a percentage of the population, residential stability, natural log of the population, and a resource deprivation index. There are also variables corresponding to each census tract that indicate which of the other census tracts it borders and its distance in miles from each of the other census tracts. Part 2 contains the same information at the neighborhood cluster level.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Not applicable
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
Measures of residential stability and resource deprivation are included in Parts 1 and 2.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2004-10-08
Version History View help for Version History
- Bhati, Avinash Singh. Spatial Analysis of Rare Crimes: Homicides in Chicago, Illinois, 1989-1991. ICPSR04079-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04079.v1
2006-03-30 File UG4079.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 CB4079.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.
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.