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The 2001 Detroit Area Study (DAS) is a survey of over 4,300 adults in metro Detroit and addresses their perceptions, expectations, satisfaction, and behaviors associated with community living. The 2001 DAS, conducted in the spring and summer 2001, consisted of two parts. Initially, face-to-face interviews were conducted with a probability sample of 315 adult respondents (18 years of age and older) living in the tri-county area of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties. Subsequently, a questionnaire was mailed to a sample of adults throughout the seven counties; 4,077 were returned. Response rates were 59.8 percent for the face-to-face sample and 56.7 percent for the mail sample. In addition to survey responses, DAS 2001 compiled contextual information about the minor civil divisions (MCDs) or communities and environments associated with each respondent. Contextual information includes housing and demographic characteristics, land use characteristics, and other characteristics of the communities where respondents live (growth rates, employment, school information). Questions on the survey asked about residential history; public services and transportation; government and taxes; schools; police; parks, recreation and where kids play; shopping and other community issues; community participation and involvement; neighborhood and neighboring; housing and prospective mobility; safety; employment and journey to work; health and health care facilities; other Detroit and regional issues; demographics; and observations. The 2001 DAS presents a unique opportunity to explore and record changes over time by measuring people's opinions and behaviors and the conditions in their communities. The 2001 DAS is different from earlier DAS surveys in several ways. First, the study has been expanded from three to seven counties in southeast Michigan, often referred to as the metro Detroit area. That is, the study contacted residents in Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Wayne, and Washtenaw counties and in the city of Detroit. Second, the number of people contacted is greatly increased using a combination of face-to-face interviews and questionnaires sent by mail. Over 4,000 households in the region were contacted. Third, the questionnaires were designed in consultation with stakeholder groups representing government, industry, and nonprofit organizations in the region. Finally, indicators associated with the sampled households are being compiled and analyzed (along with the survey responses) using statistical and spatial analytic techniques including Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Wave 3 of the Detroit Metro Area Community Study was conducted in collaboration with the Detroit Health Department in the summer of 2018 as part of the City's Community Health Assessment. Topics covered include healthcare access and utilization; neighborhood satisfaction and cohesion; community assets; and participants' priorities for change. Demographic information includes race, age, gender, education, household size, employment status, political ideology, and LGBTQIA affiliation.

The Displaced New Orleans Residents Pilot Study was designed to examine the current location, well-being, and plans of people who lived in the city of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29, 2005. The study is based on a representative sample of pre-Katrina dwellings in New Orleans. Fieldwork focused on tracking respondents wherever they currently resided, including back to New Orleans. Respondents were administered a short paper-and-pencil interview by mail, by telephone, or in person. The pilot study was fielded in the fall of 2006, approximately one year after Hurricane Katrina. The goal of DNORPS was to assess the feasibility of the study design and thereby to lay the groundwork for launching a major longitudinal study of displaced New Orleans residents.

ICPSR only holds the public data for the pilot study. The main study (DNORS) was carried out 2009-2010. These data are not yet publicly available, but for more information, visit the RAND Corporation website.

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Area Surveys [LAMAS] 3, 1971 collection reflects data gathered in 1973 as part of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area Surveys (LAMAS). The LAMAS, beginning in the spring of 1970, are a shared-time omnibus survey of Los Angeles County community members, usually repeated twice annually. The LAMAS were conducted ten times between 1970 and 1976 in an effort to develop a set of standard community profile measures appropriate for use in the planning and evaluation of public policy.

The LAMAS instruments, indexes, and scales were used to track the development and course of social indicators (including social, psychological, health, and economic variables) and the impact of public policy on the community. Questions in this survey cover respondents' attitudes toward the following topics: the concept of a model neighborhood, air pollution, medical problems and health care services in the community, local government politics, police relations, crime, the Mexican-American protests, and public transportation. A sub-sample of households in the San Fernando Area were asked questions about the 1970 earthquake, rating the effectiveness of local government response and the respondents' feelings about possible future disasters.

Demographic variables included in this dataset include age, marital status, religion, sex, education, income, geographic origin, and race.

This study was designed as an exploratory study to understand fear of gang crime among residents living in an urban area plagued by gangs. During the Summer of 1997, six focus groups were conducted in Santa Ana, California -- two in lower income neighborhoods, two in middle income neighborhoods, and two in upper income neighborhoods. After the focus groups ended, participants were asked to take disposable cameras with them and take pictures of examples of neighborhood factors that prompted them to fear gangs and then mail them back to me in a postage-paid envelope.

The research questions guiding this study were: How do the fear-of-crime perspectives apply to fear of gang crime specifically? When worrying about gang crime, do different people focus primarily on different problems (e.g., some diversity or some disorder), or do the same people think about all of these factors? Findings first showed that all four theoretical perspectives on fear of crime applied to the same people at once, rather than to different people (e.g., some being worried about racial and ethnic differences but others about disorder). Second, findings illustrated specifically how these residents connected the factors into one thought process leading to fear of gangs. Residents in these groups clearly believed that ethnic and cultural diversity, or in this case, recent "illegal" Latino immigrants, brought disorder, which in turn caused community decline and brought gangs. This thought process led to personal fear of gang-related victimization. Their beliefs about these causal connections were primarily influenced by their knowledge and observations that gangs in the area were Latino; by direct observation of area diversity disorder, and decline; and by experience living in their changing neighborhoods over time. In addition, beliefs were fueled by indirect victimization, or knowledge gained primarily through acquaintances such as neighbors and community policing officers.