Details

Subject(s)

• Crime—United States [Browse]
• Criminal justice, Administration of—United States [Browse]

Related name

• Criminal Justice Archive and Information Network [Browse]
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [Browse]

Series

• ICPSR (Series) ; 8076. [More in this series]
• ICPSR ; 8076

Restrictions note

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

Summary note

The Governmental Responses to Crime Project was initiated in October 1978 as a result of the rising crime rate in urban areas of the United States and the wide variety of programs seeking to contain it. The project investigated the way in which urban governments, citizens, newspapers and state governments responded to the growth and increasing complexity of crime during the period from 1948 to 1978. Pertinent variables in this data collection include the number of police officers in cities and police expenditures, changes in laws as crime changes, populations, employment rates, family incomes, percent of non-white population, media tracking of crime, city land area, kinds of crimes, crime rates, actual numbers of offenses, penalties given out for crimes committed (time in jail or prison and fines), focus on crimes within certain geographical areas (from within cities or outside the United States), editorial page content, level of prominence of newspaper articles on individual crimes, and the number of editorials relating to specific crimes.

Notes

• Codebook available in print and electronic format.
• Title from title screen (viewed on May 30, 2006).

Type of data

Extent of collection: 13 data files + machine-readable documentation (text) + OSIRIS dictionary + SPSS data definition statements.

Time and place of event

• Date(s) of collection: October 1978-December 1980.
• Time period: 1948-1978.

Geographic coverage

Geographic coverage: Arizona, Atlanta, California, Georgia, Houston, Indiana, Indianapolis, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, New Jersey, Newark, Oakland, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Jose, Texas, United States.

Funding information

• Funding agency: United States Department of Justice. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (presently named National Institute of Justice).
• Grant number: 78-NI-AX-0096.

Methodology note

• Data source: police department data, newspapers, ANNOTATED STATUTES, United States Bureau of the Census data, Uniform Crime Reporting data, United States Statistical Abstracts, City County Data Book (years 1950, 1960, 1970, and 1975).
• Sample: United States cities with both extreme high and low values for several factors relevant to the response to crime, as well as "average" values for same.
• Universe: all cities in the United States with a population over 50,000 in 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1975.

Contents

• [1] Parts 1-3: Baseline, Observations of ten cities, City ordinances
• [2] Parts 4 and 5: State ordinances, Media attentiveness.

Cite as

Jacob, Herbert. GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSES TO CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES, 1948-1978 [Computer file]. Conducted by Herbert Jacob, Northwestern University. 2nd ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 1985.

OCLC

80871461

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