DOI: 10.3886/icpsr08496.v1
title: Reducing Fear of Crime: Program Evaluation Surveys in Newark and Houston, 1983-1984
title: Version 1

description: Households and establishments in seven neighborhoods in Houston, Texas, and Newark, New Jersey, were surveyed to determine the extent of victimization experiences and crime prevention measures in these areas. Citizens' attitudes toward the police were also examined. Baseline data were collected to determine residents' perceptions of crime, victimization experiences, crime-avoidance behavior, and level of satisfaction with the quality of life in their neighborhoods (Parts 1 and 3). Follow-up surveys were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of experimental police programs designed to reduce the fear of crime within the communities. These results are presented in Parts 2 and 4. In Part 5, questions similar to those in the baseline survey were posed to two groups of victims who reported crimes to the police. One group had received a follow-up call to provide the victim with information, assistance, and reassurance that someone cared, and the other was a control group of victims that had not received a follow-up call. Part 6 contains data from a newsletter experiment conducted by the police departments after the baseline data were gathered, in one area each of Houston and Newark. Two versions of an anti-crime newsletter were mailed to respondents to the baseline survey and also to nonrespondents living in the area. These groups were then interviewed, along with control groups of baseline respondents and nonrespondents who might have seen the newsletter but were not selected for the mailing. Demographic data collected include age, sex, race, education and employment.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Standardized missing values.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Pre-Intervention Surveys of Residential Neighborhoods 
 DS2: Post-Intervention Surveys of Residential Neighborhoods 
 DS3: Pre-Intervention Surveys of Nonresidential Establishments 
 DS4: Post-Intervention Surveys of Nonresidential Establishments 
 DS5: Follow-Up Study of Victims From Houston, Texas 
 DS6: Newsletter Questionnaire
description: The codebooks and data collection instruments are provided as 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 through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.
description: Residents and nonresidential establishments from neighborhoods in Newark and Houston.
description: Parts 1 and 6: Random sample of households. Part 2: Follow-up interviews from the same respondents who completed surveys in the pre-intervention stage, and first-time respondents from households in the pre-intervention sample who did not complete the first survey. Parts 3 and 4: Random sample of nonresidential establishments. Part 5: Random sample of victims.