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Curated

Detroit Area Study, 1968: Black Attitudes in Detroit (ICPSR 7324)

Released/updated on: 1997-11-04

Geographic coverage: Detroit, United States, Michigan

This study sampled Black households within the city of Detroit in the spring and summer of 1968 and interviewed the head of household or spouse of the head of household. The study examined contact between Blacks and Whites and the views of Blacks regarding Black militancy, community control, Black consciousness, and anti-White sentiments. Questions included in the interview determined the number and type of contacts respondents had with whites, the respondents' attitudes toward child-rearing, and political activities at neighborhood churches. Perceptions of various local problems were probed, including the effects of the 1967 Detroit riots. Respondents were also asked about the best means for Blacks to gain their rights and reasons for the high unemployment rate in Detroit. Other topics covered respondents' experiences with and awareness of racial discrimination in the areas of housing, local police activities, business relations, and job opportunities. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, race, marital status, religious affiliation, and church activities. The respondent's residence up to age 10, length of residence in Detroit and in their current neighborhood, and the racial composition of the neighborhood were ascertained. Respondent's educational level, the racial composition of schools the respondent attended, and respondent's service in the military were also recorded. Other demographic information was gathered regarding the number of adults and children living in the household, as well as the number of rooms in the house, family income, and income sources. The respondent was also asked about the educational levels and occupations of other family members.

Curated

ICPSR Instructional Subset: Justifying Violence: Attitudes of American Men, 1969 (ICPSR 7517)

Released/updated on: 1992-02-16

Geographic coverage: United States

This survey of attitudes of 1,374 American men aged 16-64 toward violence was conducted in the summer of 1969 by the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The investigators examined the level of violence that respondents viewed as justified to accomplish social control and social change and also probed the respondents' personal values, their definition of violence, and their identification with groups involved in violence. To examine the degree of violence that American men felt could be justified for social control, the investigators asked respondents to react to situations involving protests and other disturbances. These situations included hoodlum gang disturbances, student protests, and Black protest demonstrations. The respondents were asked what police actions from "letting it go" to "shooting to kill" were appropriate as police control measures. Several such items were combined to form an index of "violence for social control." In questions dealing with the level of violence necessary to bring about social change, respondents were asked if they agreed with the necessity of "protest in which some people will be killed" in order to bring about changes sought by Blacks, by student demonstrators, and in general. These items were combined into an index of "violence for social change." This instructional subset from the original study also includes an initial series of questions that asked whether respondents viewed such actions as protest demonstrations, police frisking, looting, burglary, and draft-card burning as violence. This was followed by inquiries into the possible causes of violence and motives of those who participate in violence. Another set of variables deals with respondents' relative views of property damage and personal injury and their opinions on the use of violence to prevent violence, violence as a teaching tool, forgiveness of one's attacker, and the roles of courts and police agencies in combating crime. The subset concludes with a number of derived indices of violence attitudes that drew upon survey questions to form general patterns. These derived indices include retributive justice, self-defense, humanism, property-person priority, kindness, police-court power, court fairness, social causes, trust, and peer consensus indices. Finally, several summary measures gauge the respondents' general approval of violence for social control and social change purposes. Demographic variables specify education, age, religion, socioeconomic status, and region of the country.

Curated

Negro Political Attitudes, 1964 (ICPSR 7002)

Released/updated on: 2007-12-19

Geographic coverage: New York City, United States, Chicago, Atlanta, Illinois, Georgia, Alabama, New York (state), Birmingham

This study is part of the University of California's Five-Year Study of anti-Semitism in the United States. As a result of the outbreak of Black rioting during the summer of 1964, it was decided to expand the proposed Black subsample of the national sample to a larger Black oversample in order to study the climate of opinion in the Black American community. These Black respondents were selected by drawing five samples: one general metropolitan sample and four urban samples from Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and Birmingham. Questions were asked about the respondents' present economic and social positions as well as the economic and social conditions in their childhood. Respondents' opinions on civil rights issues as well as attitudes toward authority and treatment of Blacks in the existing system were investigated. A section of the questionnaire was devoted to the respondents' attitudes toward Jews and other groups.