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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

National Assessment Survey of Law Enforcement Anti-Gang Information Resources, 1990-1991 (ICPSR 6237)

Released/updated on: 2005-11-04

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 1990-01-01--1991-01-01

This study constituted a systematic national assessment of local law enforcement perceptions of the distribution of gang and gang-like problems in large cities in the United States, law enforcement reactions to gangs, and their policies toward gang problems. One purpose of the study was to examine changes in law enforcement perceptions of the U.S. gang problem that have occurred since NATIONAL YOUTH GANG INTERVENTION AND SUPPRESSION SURVEY, 1980-1987 (ICPSR 9792) was undertaken. The overall goal was to obtain as "conservative" as possible an estimate of the magnitude of the gang problem in the United States as reflected by the official reaction, record-keeping, and reporting of local law enforcement agencies. The agencies were asked to refer the interviewer to the individual representative of the agency who could provide the most information about the agency's processing of information on gangs and other youth-based groups engaged in criminal activity. To obtain each law enforcement agency's official, not personal, perspective on gang problems, anonymity was intentionally avoided. Each respondent was first asked whether the respondent's agency officially identified a "gang problem" within their jurisdiction. Gangs were defined for this study as groups involving youths engaging in criminal activity. Respondents were then asked if their department officially recognized the presence of other kinds of organized groups that engaged in criminal activity and involved youths and that might be identified by their department as crews, posses, or some other designation. Based on affirmative answers to questions on the officially recognized presence of gangs and the kinds of record-keeping employed by their departments, agencies were sent customized questionnaire packets asking for specifics on only those aspects of the gang problem that their representative had reported the agency kept information on. Variables include city name, state, ZIP code, whether the city participated in National Youth Gang Intervention and Suppression Survey, 1980-1987, and, if so, if the city reported a gang problem. Data on gangs include the number of homicides and other violent, property, drug-related, and vice offenses attributed to youth gangs and female gangs, total number of gang incidents, gangs, gang members, female gang members, and gangs comprised only of females for 1991, number of juvenile gang-related incidents and adult gang-related incidents in 1991, number of drive-by shootings involving gang members or female gang members in 1991, and numbers or percent estimates of gang members by ethnic groups for 1990 and 1991. Respondents also indicated whether various strategies for combating gang problems had been attempted by the department, and if so, how effective each of the crime prevention measures were.

Curated

Operation Hardcore [Crime] Evaluation: Los Angeles, 1976-1980 (ICPSR 9038)

Released/updated on: 2006-01-12

Geographic coverage: United States, Los Angeles, California

Time period: 1976-01-01--1980-01-01

This evaluation was developed and implemented by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office to examine the effectiveness of specialized prosecutorial activities in dealing with the local problem of rising gang violence, in particular the special gang prosecution unit Operation Hardcore. One part of the evaluation was a system performance analysis. The purposes of this system performance analysis were (1) to describe the problems of gang violence in Los Angeles and the ways that incidents of gang violence were handled by the Los Angeles criminal justice system, and (2) to document the activities of Operation Hardcore and its effect on the criminal justice system's handling of the cases prosecuted by that unit. Computer-generated listings from the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office of all individuals referred for prosecution by local police agencies were used to identify those individuals who were subsequently prosecuted by the District Attorney. Data from working files on all cases prosecuted, including copies of police, court, and criminal history records as well as information on case prosecution, were used to describe criminal justice handling. Information from several supplementary sources was also included, such as the automated Prosecutors Management Information System (PROMIS) maintained by the District Attorney's Office, and court records from the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County, the local felony court.

Curated

Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Self Report of Offending, Wave 1, 1994-1997 (ICPSR 13601)

Released/updated on: 2006-02-07

Geographic coverage: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Time period: 1994-01-01--1997-01-01

The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) was a large-scale, interdisciplinary study of how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. One component of the PHDCN was the Longitudinal Cohort Study, which was a series of coordinated longitudinal studies that followed over 6,000 randomly selected children, adolescents, and young adults, and their primary caregivers over time to examine the changing circumstances of their lives, as well as the personal characteristics, that might lead them toward or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. Numerous measures were administered to respondents to gauge various aspects of human development, including individual differences, as well as family, peer, and school influences. The Self Report of Offending was a self-report questionnaire focused on a participant's involvement in antisocial behavior and the legal consequences of that behavior.

Curated

Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Self Report of Offending, Wave 2, 1997-2000 (ICPSR 13658)

Released/updated on: 2005-12-06

Geographic coverage: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Time period: 1997-01-01--2000-01-01

Curated

Substance Use Among Violently Injured Youth in an Urban Emergency Department: Services and Outcomes in Flint, Michigan, 2009-2013 (ICPSR 36558)

Released/updated on: 2016-09-23

Geographic coverage: Flint, United States, Michigan

Time period: 2009-12-01--2013-09-01

This project was an investigation into the natural course of service needs, use, and trajectories among high-risk youth and young adults with drug use who presented to an inner-city Emergency Department with multiple risk behaviors (with and without acute violent injury). Eligible participants included youth/young adults (ages 14-24) who sought care at the Hurley Medical Center (HMC) Emergency Department (ED) located in Flint, Michigan between December 19, 2009 and September 7, 2011. Consenting youth completed a self-administered computerized screening survey. All participants who self-reported past year drug use were recruited for the longitudinal study. For a comparison group, a randomly selected sample of drug using youth seeking ED care for other reasons (e.g. abdominal pain, motor vehicle crash) were selected for longitudinal study (equilibrated monthly proportionally for age/gender with the acute violent injury group). Participants in the violent injury and comparison group completed a baseline assessment during their ED visit.

Dataset 1 (DS1) contains the Baseline Screener Data of both young adults and youth. This data file has 1,448 cases and 314 variables. Each case represents an individual seeking treatment in the emergency department.

Dataset 2 (DS2) contains the Baseline Youth Data. This data file has 89 cases and 531 variables. Of these 89 cases, 51 of the youths (ages 14-17) presented to the Emergency Department with a violent injury. The remaining 38 respondents reported to the Emergency Department for non-violent injury and are part of the comparison group.

Dataset 3 (DS3) contains the Baseline Young Adult Data. This file contains 511 cases and 483 variables. Of these 511 cases, 299 of the young adults (ages 18-24) presented to the Emergency Department with a violent injury. The remaining 212 respondents reported to the Emergency Department for non-violent injury and are part of the comparison group.

The Baseline Screener Data includes demographics and information about public assistance, income, work, marital status, insurance, the injury visit, school/grades, retaliation attitudes, fights, violence, gang affiliation, weapons, partner violence, nicotine use, alcohol use, drug use, HIV risk-taking behaviors, needle use, sexual behavior, STD/HIV, past adolescent injuries, age on onset of drug use, and current conflict and aggression.

The Baseline Youth and Young Adult Data include sexual behavior, threat of retaliation, brief symptom inventory/suicide risk, drug and alcohol refusal efficacy, drinking and driving (DUI), community involvement, peer influences, non-partner aggression, parental support, parent influence on drug and alcohol use, family conflict, mentors, fight self-efficacy, community violence, sexual risk behaviors, medical care, alcohol dependence/abuse, drug dependence/abuse, substance abuse service utilization, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), conduct disorder (youth) or antisocial personality disorder (young adult), legal system involvement, major depressive episodes, and mental health service utilization.

Curated

Understanding the Fear of Street Gangs: The Importance of Community Conditions [Santa Ana, California, 1997] (ICPSR 32161)

Released/updated on: 2012-02-29

Geographic coverage: United States, Santa Ana, California

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.