If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. J r ;I ~" ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research Crime Factors and Neighborhood Decline in Chicago, 1979 q ~ . Richard Taub % %. ), ICPSR 7952 Q~ tD Q CRIME FACTORS AND NEIGHBORHOOD DECLINE IN CHICAGO, 1979 (ICPSR 7952) Principal Investigator Richard Taub National Opinion Research Center First ICPSR Edition First Printing, Spring 1982 Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research P.O. Box 1248 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 '7 • I~ ~ ~ I ..... ~I ~i ~jl ~ I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ASSISTANCE All manuscripts utilizing data made available through the Consortium should acknowledge that fact as well as identify the original collector of the data. The ICPSR Council urges all users of the ICPSR data facilities to follow some adaptation of this statement with the parentheses indicating items to be filled in appropriately or deleted by the individual user. The data (and tabulations) utilized in this (publication) were made available (in part) by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data for CRIME FACTORS AND NEIGHBORHOOD DECLINE IN CHICAGO, 1979 were originally collected by Richard Taub. Neither the collector of the original data nor the Consortium bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here. In order to provide funding agencies with essential information about the use of archival resources and to facilitate the exchange of information about ICPSR participants' research activities, each user of the ICPSR data facilities is expected to send two copies of each completed manuscript or thesis abstract to the Consortium. Please indicate in the cover letter which data were used. rl I TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO. I NTRODUCTI ON Study Description Related Publications II Sampling and Survey Information III File Structure IX Codebook Information X ICPSR Processing Information XII VARIABLE DESCRIPTION LIST XIII CODEBOOK 0 0 0 INTRODUCTION STUDY DESCRIPTION This study explores the relationship between crime and neighborhood deterioration in eight neighborhoods in Chicago. The relationship between crime and neighborhood deterioration is neither simple nor obvious. In some cases, the deterioration may lead to increases in crime; in other cases, neighborhoods deteriorate in the absence of high crime rates, or improve despite high crime rates. The theoretical orientation for this study is supplied by Burgess' (1925) classical theories of urban social change. In this view, the city is a growing, organic system with older neighborhoods closer to the center and newer neighborhoods further from the center. Underlying the model is the assumption that people want to live as far from the city center as is feasible, with feasibility defined as cost and time to travel to and from work in the central city. Thus cities grow in the manner of tree rings with the rich moving further and further from the city center, and the poor moving into their spacious homes and breaking them into smaller housing units. A growing proportion of the population in many cities is black or Hispanic. As the suburban construction boom enticed whites to the suburbs, blacks moved outward from restricted ghetto areas. The arrival of blacks in a neighborhood is clearly associated with processes that often lead to deterioration: white flight, an oversupply of housing, and property depreciation. It also often leads to undermaintenance and subdivision by landlords, red-lining, and the reduction of city services. A new pattern of succession in some cities is gentrification, the process where relatively affluent young professionals move into neighborhoods and renovate them. As these areas become popular, many more people move into them, raising property values and in some cases, driving away the original residents. Gentrification often takes place in the presence of high crime rates. Investment and disinvestment, and the decision to move or to stay, are economic decisions based on complex stimuli of which crime and fear of crime are but two. Inadequate demand for housing leads to lack of maintenance and deterioration when residents and landlords perceive that their neighborhood does not have a future. Conversely, when the future looks bright, they respond with reinvestment to II make their properties more attractive, and with other aggressive market behaviors to attract new purchasers and tenants. RELATED PUBLICATIONS Taub, Richard P., D. Garth Taylor, and Jan D. Dunham. CRIME, FEAR, AND NEIGHBORHOODS. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Forthcoming) Taub, Richard P., D. Garth Taylor, and Jan D. Dunham. "Neighborhoods and Safety," in Dan A. Lewis (ed.), 1981, REACTIONS TO CRIME. Beverly Hills, Californa: Sage Publications. III SAMPLING AND SURVEY INFORMATION Eight Chicago neighborhoods were selected for study on the basis of high or low crime rates, stable or changing racial composition, and slowly or rapidly appreciating property values. See Appendix A. The neighborhoods are described in greater detail below. A telephone survey was administered to approximately 400 heads of household in each of the eight study neighborhoods. Respondents were selected using random digit dialing techniques and screened for street name and block number. Examples of the screener and questionnaire are in Appendix B. The survey was designed to measure victimization experience, fear and perceptions of crime, protective measures taken, attitudes toward neighborhood quality and resources, attitudes toward the neighborhood as a financial investment, and intensity of community involvement. Each record in the file also contains supplementary information not obtained in the survey: appearance ratings for the block of the respondents' residence, and aggregate figures on personal and property victimization for that city block. The appearance ratings were compiled from windshield surveys taken by trained personnel of the National Opinion Research Center. The criminal victimization figures came from Chicago city Police Department files. BEVERLY Beverly stands in physical contrast to the other three low crime communities. Much of its housing is larger and more elegant, its lots are larger and some of its streets are slightly curving rather than displaying the standard Chicago grid pattern. The literature which promotes Beverly calls it a "Village in the City." Since it has no industry of its own, "Suburb in the City" might be a accurate characterization. Despite impressive natural amenities and a location far from the city's center, Beverly's character is the result of substantial intervention by residents and commercial interests. This is not unique to Beverly. With only one exception, all of our successful communities--that is, those in which housing stock is well-maintained, there is little or no abandonment, and there is enough market demand for housing--are communities in which considerable intervention has been required to prevent deterioration. Beverly got its start as a residential community with the arrival of the railroad. It is one of the few Chicago areas with a hill, and that amenity became the site of homes for wealthy businessmen. Although some of the housing away IV from the hill is substantially less elegant, Beverly grew and prospered until some time in the 1960s. However Beverly stood in the path of south side black expansion. A few blacks moved into the community and knowledgeable observers began to worry that the neighborhood was "going." Property values began to decline. Beverly residents have responded to the threat of racial change with efforts both to keep the flow of demand and capital in the area up, and to nip potential crime problems in the bud. In 1971, and existing community organization, the Beverly Area Planning Association (BAPA) was reinvigorated and Beverly residents, with financial support from a local bank and from commercial interests associated with a nearby shopping center, began a multi-pronged effort to deal with Beverly's "problems". BAPA's annual budget went from $13,000 to more than $100,000 as it devoted itself to a range of concerns. These included renewed attention to crime and youth problems, efforts to deal with real estate agents who profited from neighborhood change, and attempts to attract middle-class and white people to the area. The last involved, among other things, selling the community through literature, community "walks" and internal morale boosting. EAST SIDE East Side is part of a sub-center formed by the steel mills in the southeastern corner of the city. It grew with the steel industry, and the areas closest to the mills are the oldest and the poorest; housing is newer and of better quality as one moves further away. East Side has clearly defined boundaries including a river and a line of steel mills which set it off from the city. For an urban community, it has unusually high levels of residential stability. Efforts have been made to keep public housing as well as commercial land uses that might attract "outsiders" out of the community. Residents worked to close a game arcade because it encouraged kids to hang out there. They also worked to close a particular bar where it seemed as if too many stabbings and other violent events took place. East Side is a stable community, one which is low in crime and perceives itself to be safe, so far. There is some evidence of undermaintenance in the northern part of the community. More important, the high median age of the population coupled