Details

Related name

• Ball, Richard A. [Browse]
• Curry, G. David [Browse]
• Fox, Robert J. [Browse]
• Stone, Darryl [Browse]
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [Browse]

Series

• ICPSR (Series) ; 6237. [More in this series]
• ICPSR 6237

Restrictions note

Use of these data are restricted to Princeton University students, faculty, and staff for non-commercial statistical analysis and research purposes only.

Summary note

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... Cf.: http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR-STUDY/06237.xml

Notes

Title from ICPSR DDI metadata of 2006-09-15.

Type of data

1 data file + machine-readable documentation (text) + SAS setup file + SPSS setup file + SAS supplemental syntax file + data collection instrument (image)

Time and place of event

Start: 1990; and end: 1991.

Geographic coverage

United States

Funding information

United States Department of Justice. NationalInstitute of Justice. 91-IJ-CX-K003

System details

Mode of access: Internet.

Methodology note

• Data source: Information on whether the law enforcement agency perceived a gang or gang-like problem was collected by telephone. Agencies that indicated the presence of a gang problem were mailed questionnaires to collect more information about their reported gang problem.
• Universe: Police departments in United States cities with populations near 200,000 and above.

Contents

Part 1: Data File; Part 2: SAS Data Definition Statements; Part 3: Data Collection Instrument in PDF Format

Other format(s)

Also available as downloadable files.

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