DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03872.v1
title: Impact of Immigration on Ethnic-Specific Violence in Miami, Florida, 1997
title: Version 1

description: Does the rate of violent victimization differ across race
 and ethnic groups? In an effort to answer this question, this study
 sought to examine the violent victimization rate and the factors
 influencing ethnic-specific rates of violence in the city of
 Miami. Administrative data were obtained from the United States Bureau
 of the Census and the Miami Police Department Research Unit. For the
 groups of people identified as Afro Americans, Latinos, and Haitians,
 the numbers who were victims of aggravated assault and robbery in 1997
 are included along with the assault and robbery rates for each
 group. The remaining variables are the percent of female-headed
 households, percent below poverty line, percent of young males out of
 the labor force and unemployed, residential instability, vacant and
household instability, and the percent of 1980-1990 immigrants.
description: Does the rate of violent victimization differ
 across race and ethnic groups? Researchers of urban social problems
 continue to struggle with this question. The racial and ethnic
 composition of urban America has changed as a result in large part of
 increased immigration over the past 20 years, requiring researchers to
 acknowledge the growth of Latino, Asian, and Afro-Caribbean
 neighborhoods--many of which are in high crime and high poverty
 areas. Despite the growth of studies on race and violence over the
 past two decades that have examined this linkage at the national,
 metropolitan, and city levels, this issue remains largely overlooked
 at the neighborhood level. Many studies of Black or White violence are
 no longer reflections of the nature of racial and ethnic population
 compositions in many urban communities. The contextual factors that
 shape neighborhood-level violence have become important to identify
 since these influences might vary when accounting for racial and
 ethnic differences in violent crime, even within a single city. This
 study examined the violent victimization rate and the factors
 influencing ethnic-specific rates of violence for armed robbery and
 aggravated assault in the city of Miami. The objective was to better
 inform analyses of violent crime by outlining the basic contours of
 race/ethnicity (Latino, African American,and Haitian) in a primarily
immigrant city by focusing on serious reported non-lethal violence.
description: The primary unit of observation for this study was
 the census tract, or more specifically, the 70 census tracts in the
 city of Miami that are comprised of 500 or more residents. Census
 tracts were used as neighborhood proxies because research has shown
 they are the best unit of analysis below the city level to study the
 race and violence connection. The minimum population requirement was
 imposed to help stabilize rates of violence crime and avoid the
 inclusion of small islands in Biscayne Bay with few residents or
 containing upscale high-rise hotels or condominiums. Administrative
 records data were obtained from the United States Bureau of the Census,
 which provided the 1990 census tract data. These data provide detailed
 demographic information such as the number of residents, the
 percentage of tract population living below the poverty level, racial
 and ethnic composition, and a host of other information. The data for
 all reported robberies and aggravated assaults for 1997 was obtained
 from the city of Miami Police Department Research Unit. The address
 for each incident and victim race, surname, age, and gender were
 provided in a raw data file, geocoded into the census tract in which
 they occurred, aggregated to the tract level, and merged with the
census tract information.
description: For the groups of people identified as Afro
 Americans, Latinos, and Haitians, the number who were victims of
 aggravated assault and robbery in 1997 are included along with the
 assault and robbery rates for each group. The remaining variables are
 the percent of female-headed households, percent below poverty line,
 percent of young males out of the labor force and unemployed,
 residential instability, vacant and household instability, and the
percent of 1980-1990 immigrants.
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: The city of Miami was purposively chosen as the city most
 suited for this study. Researchers chose Miami because it provided an
 excellent opportunity to examine the race/ethnicity and violence
 linkage in a high violence city with a racially and ethnically diverse
population and a large immigrant population.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Impact of Immigration on Ethnic-Specific Violence in Miami, Florida, 1997
description: The 70 census tracts in the city of Miami, Florida. Smallest Geographic Unit: census tract
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