Crime Stoppers: A National Evaluation of Program Operations and Effects, [United States], 1984
Description
The goal of this data collection was to answer three basic
questions about the Crime Stoppers (CS) program, a program encouraging
citizen involvement in averting crime and apprehending suspects. First,
how does Crime Stoppers work in theory and in practice? Second, what
are the opinions and attitudes of program participants toward the Crime
Stoppers program? Third, how do various components of the program such
as rewards, anonymity, use of informants, and media participation
affect criminal justice outcome measures such as citizen calls and
arrests? This collection marks the first attempt to examine the
operational procedures and effectiveness of Crime Stoppers programs in
the United States. Police coordinators and board chairs of local Crime
Stoppers programs described their perceptions of and attitudes toward
the Crime Stoppers program. The Police Coordinator File includes
variables such as the police coordinator's background and experience,
program development and support, everyday operations and procedures,
outcome statistics on citizen calls (suspects arrested, property
recovered, and suspects prosecuted), reward setting and distribution,
and program relations with media, law enforcement, and the board of
directors. Also available in this file are data on citizen calls
received by the program, the program's arrests and clearances, and the
program's effects on investigation procedure. The merged file contains
data from police coordinators and from Crime Stoppers board members.
Other variables include city population, percent of households living
in poverty, percent of white population, number of Uniform Crime
Reports (UCR) Part I crimes involved, membership and performance of the
board, fund raising methods, and ratings of the program.