E NT OF J U.S. Department of Justice TM U R ST A I P C E E D B O Office of Justice Programs J C S F A V F O M I N A C I S R E J J O B G O JJDP RO F J P Bureau of Justice Assistance US TICE Bureau of Justice Assistance A Police Guide to Surveying Citizens and Their Environment MONOGRAPH Bureau of Justice Assistance A Police Guide to Surveying Citizens and Their Environment MONOGRAPH October 1993 NCJ 143711 This document was prepared by the Police Executive Research Forum, supported by cooperative agreement number 88–DD–CX–K022, awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Assistance 633 Indiana Avenue NW. Washington, DC 20531 202–514–6278 The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Bureau of Justice Assistance wishes to thank the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) for its help and guidance in compiling this document, in particular Nancy G. LaVigne and John␣E. Eck. iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ IX INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 PART I: SURVEYING CITIZENS: A GUIDE FOR POLICE ........................................................... 5 OF WHAT VALUE ARE SURVEYS? ................................................................................................. 7 The Uses of Surveys .................................................................................................................. 7 Types of Questions To Be Addressed ......................................................................................... 7 Attitudes and Opinions.............................................................................................................. 8 Behavior and Experience ........................................................................................................... 8 Characteristics ........................................................................................................................... 9 WHO WILL BE SURVEYED? ......................................................................................................... 10 Simple Random Sampling ......................................................................................................... 11 Nonrandom Sampling .............................................................................................................. 12 HOW MANY WILL BE SAMPLED? ............................................................................................... 15 HOW WILL THE RESPONDENTS BE CONTACTED? .................................................................... 18 Mail Surveys............................................................................................................................. 18 Telephone Surveys ................................................................................................................... 19 Inperson Interviews .................................................................................................................. 20 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 21 WHAT QUESTIONS WILL BE ASKED? ......................................................................................... 22 General Considerations ............................................................................................................ 22 How To Ask Questions............................................................................................................. 23 Open-Ended Questions ............................................................................................................ 27 Designing the Questionnaire .................................................................................................... 28 v HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF THE DATA ........................................................................................ 31 Characteristics of the Sample.................................................................................................... 31 Representativeness of the Sample ............................................................................................. 32 Making Inferences About the Population .................................................................................. 32 Estimating Relationships ........................................................................................................... 33 Significance Testing.................................................................................................................. 37 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 39 PART II: ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEYS FOR PROBLEM SOLVING: A PRACTICAL GUIDE ..... 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEYS AND PROBLEM SOLVING ............................................................ 43 THE OFFENDER AND RATIONAL DECISIONMAKING ............................................................... 44 Defensible Space...................................................................................................................... 44 Neighborhood Maintenance and Safety ................................................................................... 44 Physical Defense and Target Hardening .................................................................................... 45 ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEYS IN PRACTICE.................................................................................. 46 Large-Scale Analysis .................................................................................................................. 46 Assessing Situational Factors of Crime and Disorder.................................................................. 46 DEVELOPING AND USING A SURVEY INSTRUMENT ................................................................. 48 Designing an Approach............................................................................................................. 48 Defining the Area ...................................................................................................................... 48 Reliability and Validity .............................................................................................................. 49 Survey Design ........................................................................................................................... 50 Layout of the Survey Instrument ................................................................................................ 51 Numbering Questions ............................................................................................................... 51 Sampling and Pretesting Survey ................................................................................................. 51 DRAWING ON OTHER DATA SOURCES ..................................................................................... 52 Police Calls for Service .............................................................................................................. 52 Surveys of the Public ................................................................................................................. 52 Official Land Use Data .............................................................................................................. 52 vi CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................ 54 GLOSSARY ...............................................................................................................................55 SOURCES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.............................................................................. 58 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................ 58 FURTHER READING...................................................................................................................... 59 APPENDIX A: EXAMPLE OF A HOUSING COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY ................. 61 APPENDIX B: EXAMPLE OF A BLOCK ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION SURVEY ............................................................................. 69 APPENDIX C: EXAMPLE OF A DRUG “HOT SPOT” SURVEY.................................................. 81 APPENDIX D: EXAMPLE OF A SITUATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY USED FOR ANALYZING CONVENIENCE STORE PROBLEMS .......................................... 89 vii viii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY “How are we doing?” How the public answers this For many reasons, the most popular manner of question can determine police strategies and, ulti- selecting a representative sample is random selec- mately, their success or failure. When a police tion. It is mathematically simple to calculate the department surveys public opinion it may well seek to (usually small) odds that a random sample is not measure