DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03796
title: Effects of Arrests and Incarceration on Informal Social Control in Baltimore, Maryland, Neighborhoods, 1980-1994
title: Archival Version

description: This study examined the effects of police arrest policies
and incarceration policies on communities in 30 neighborhoods in
Baltimore. Specifically, the study addressed the question of whether
aggressive arrest and incarceration policies negatively impacted
social organization and thereby reduced the willingness of area
residents to engage in informal social control, or collective efficacy.
CRIME CHANGES IN BALTIMORE, 1970-1994 (ICPSR 2352) provided aggregate
community-level data on demographics, socioeconomic attributes, and
crime rates as well as data from interviews with residents about
community attachment, cohesiveness, participation, satisfaction, and
experiences with crime and self-protection. Incident-level offense
and arrest data for 1987 and 1992 were obtained from the Baltimore
Police Department. The Maryland Department of Public Safety and
Corrections provided data on all of the admissions to and releases
from prisons in neighborhoods in Baltimore City and Baltimore County
for 1987, 1992, and 1994.
description: This study investigated the role of criminal
 justice policy in building and maintaining communities. It examined
 the effects of police arrest policies and incarceration policies on
 communities in 30 neighborhoods in Baltimore. Specifically, the study
 addressed the question of whether aggressive arrest and incarceration
 policies negatively impacted social organization and thereby reduced
 the willingness of area residents to engage in informal social
 control, or collective efficacy. Changes in arrest and incarceration
 practices and in structural attributes of neighborhoods were measured
 over a number of years. Previous studies assessed the effects of
 coercion on crime and fear of crime but not on community organization
 or collective efficacy. This study also examined the purported
 beneficial effects of these arrest and incarceration policies (e.g.,
crime reduction).
description: The data for this study came from three
 sources. One source was CRIME CHANGES IN BALTIMORE, 1970-1994 (ICPSR
 2352). Aggregate community-level data on demographics, socioeconomic
 attributes, and crime rates covering the period 1980 to 1992 were
 taken from Part 6 of ICPSR 2352, CRIME RATES AND CENSUS DATA FOR ALL
 BALTIMORE NEIGHBORHOODS, 1970-1992. Part 9 of ICPSR 2352, SURVEY OF
 RESIDENTS IN 30 NEIGHBORHOODS, 1994, provided data from interviews
 with 704 residents of these neighborhoods about community attachment,
 cohesiveness, participation, satisfaction, and experiences with crime
 and self-protection. The second source of data was the Baltimore
 Police Department, which provided incident-level offense and arrest
 data for 1987 and 1992. The offense data included the type of offense
 and street address where it occurred, and the arrest data included the
 type of charge and the street address where the arrest was made.
 Arrest and offense sites were located within the neighborhood where
 the incident happened. For this study, offenses and charges were
 grouped into four categories: drugs, violence, property, and public
 order. There were potential problems with the spatial identification
 of arrests. The arrest location may not represent where the crime
 occurred. The third source of data was the Maryland Department of
 Public Safety and Corrections, which provided data on all of the
 admissions to and releases from prisons in neighborhoods in Baltimore
 City and Baltimore County in 1987, 1992, and 1994. Each record
 included the admission date, release date, the charges for which the
 person was incarcerated, and the person's address at the time of
 admission or release. As with the arrest data, these addresses were
 used to associate individuals with the appropriate neighborhood in
 Baltimore City. A potential problem with the corrections data was
 incomplete data on admissions and releases due to missing address
 data. Corrections Department personnel estimated that almost 50
percent of admissions and releases did not have address information.
description: Resident survey variables include answers to
 questions about different aspects of residents' neighborhoods, such as
 physical appearance, problems, crime and safety issues, and level of
 satisfaction with and involvement in their neighborhoods. The survey
 also collected demographic information, such as household size, how
 long at residence, marital status, income, gender, and race. Several
 variables derived from survey answers are also provided. Crime rate
 and census variables include crime rates for aggravated assault,
 burglary, homicide, larceny, auto theft, rape, and robbery for
 1980-1992, and census information for 1990 on the composition of the
 housing units and the age, gender, race, education, employment, and
 income of residents of each neighborhood. Also provided are crime
 rates for each neighborhood for 1987-1992 and violent crime rates for
 1980-1992. Arrest variables are provided for several arrest types for
 1987 and 1992 for the entire neighborhood, Blacks, and Whites. Several
 derived arrest variables, including arrest rates, are provided.
 Incarceration variables include total prison admissions and releases
 for 1994, 1992, and 1987, number of admissions and releases for drug,
 public order, property, weapons, and violent offenders in each year,
 average time served by those released, admissions per capita,
 admission rates for each type of offender, changes in admission rates
 across the three years, prison admissions and releases per young
 adult population, and changes in admissions per young adult across
the three years.
description: Response Rates: The average response rate for the resident survey
was 76 percent.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Scales were constructed for community poverty, residential
 stability, informal social control, community solidarity, interaction
 among neighbors, and participation in voluntary associations. Several
Likert-type scales were also used.
description: Sampling for CRIME CHANGES IN BALTIMORE, 1970-1994 (ICPSR
 2352) was carried out in the following manner. In 1981, 66
 neighborhoods were randomly sampled from the 236 neighborhoods in
 Baltimore for block assessment. In 1994, 30 neighborhoods from the 66
 chosen in 1981 were selected using stratified sampling to maximize the
 variation in changes in crime between the two research periods. Each
 neighborhood that was finally selected also had to contain three
 blocks that met the block eligibility criteria. Eight neighborhoods
 did not meet these criteria and had to be resampled. Blocks were
 selected based on the following criteria: (1) 1981 physical assessment
 data were available for the block, (2) the reverse telephone directory
 listed residential phones on that block, (3) there were at least 12
 residential households with phones on that block, and (4) the
 telephone listings were not dominated by phones in large apartment
 buildings. Households were randomly assigned to two replicate samples,
 and the second replicate was used only if the first replicate sample
 had been exhausted without reaching the minimum block quota of four
households.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Effects of Arrests and Incarceration on Informal Social Control in Baltimore, Maryland, Neighborhoods, 1980-1994
description: Urban Baltimore neighborhoods and their residents. Smallest Geographic Unit: neighborhood
description: The user guide and codebook are provided by ICPSR in a
Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed
by Adobe Systems, Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader
software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to
obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web
site.