Patterns of Behavior in Police and Citizen Transactions: Boston, Chicago, and Washington, DC, 1966 (ICPSR 9086)

Published: Nov 4, 2005

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Principal Investigator(s):
Albert J. Jr. Reiss

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09086.v1

Version V1

Summary

These data have been influential in the development of theories of police behavior. Variables in the collection supply information on the nature and context of encounters between citizens and the police. Data are included on the characteristics and roles of individuals involved in an encounter, relationships among the participants in the encounter, individuals' definitions of the situation after the arrival of police, specific police actions and manner of police behavior during the encounter, and informal characterizations by police of participants involved in the encounter. In cases where offender suspects were involved, information was collected on restraints employed, searches, interrogations, confessions, advisement of rights, booking, and other arrest processes.

Citation

Reiss, Albert J. Jr. Patterns of Behavior in Police and Citizen Transactions: Boston, Chicago, and Washington, DC, 1966. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2005-11-04. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09086.v1

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Funding

President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice (OLEA-006)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Time Period(s)

1966

Date of Collection

1966

Data Collection Notes

ICPSR distributes two related data collections: SURVEY OF VICTIMIZATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT IN BOSTON AND CHICAGO, 1966 (ICPSR 9085) and ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS OF POLICE OFFICERS IN BOSTON, CHICAGO, AND WASHINGTON, DC, 1966 (ICPSR 9087).

Codebooks are available for Part 2 and Part 5 only. Parts 1, 3, and 4 are only documented by SAS and SPSS data definition statements.

These data are part of a larger study entitled "Field Surveys III: Studies in Crime and Law Enforcement in Major Metropolitan Areas."

Sample

Three sample cities (Chicago, Boston, and Washington, DC) were purposively selected to represent differences in the size, location, degree of control, and type of organization in police departments. Within each city, two police precincts (four in Washington) with high crime rates were selected to represent areas with different race and class compositions. The selected sites were: (1) Boston, MA: precincts Dorchester and Roxbury, (2) Chicago, IL: precincts Fillmore and Town Hall, and (3) Washington, DC: precincts #6, 10, 13, and 14. Stratified probability samples of police tours of duty were drawn. Evening and weekend shifts were overrepresented to maximize the number of encounters observed.

Universe

All encounters between citizens and police in major metropolitan areas of the United States.

Data Source

field observation and official records

Data Type(s)

event/transaction data

Original Release Date

1989-05-04

Version Date

2005-11-04

Version History

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.

2000-08-01 SAS and SPSS data definition statements and PDF versions of the codebooks have been added to this collection.

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.

  • The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented.
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.