Residential Neighborhood Crime Control Project: Hartford, Connecticut, 1973, 1975-1977, 1979
Description
This data collection contains responses to victimization
surveys that were administered as part of both the planning and
evaluation stages of the Hartford Project, a crime opportunity
reduction program implemented in a residential neighborhood in
Hartford, Connecticut, in 1976. The Hartford Project was an experiment
in how to reduce residential burglary and street robbery/purse snatching
and the fear of those crimes. Funded through the Hartford Institute of
Criminal and Social Justice, the project began in 1973. It was based
on a new "environmental" approach to crime prevention: a comprehensive
and integrative view addressing not only the relationship among
citizens, police, and offenders, but also the effect of the physical
environment on their attitudes and behavior. The surveys were
administered by the Center for Survey Research at the University of
Massachusetts at Boston. The Center collected Hartford resident survey
data in five different years: 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, and 1979. The
1973 survey provided basic data for problem analysis and
planning. These data were updated twice: in 1975 to gather baseline
data for the time of program implementation, and in the spring of 1976
with a survey of households in one targeted neighborhood of Hartford
to provide data for the time of implementation of physical changes
there. Program evaluation surveys were carried out in the spring of
1977 and two years later in 1979. The procedures for each survey were
essentially identical each year in order to ensure comparability
across time. The one exception was the 1976 sample, which was not
independent of the one taken in 1975. In each survey except 1979,
respondents reported on experiences during the preceding 12-month
period. In 1979 the time reference was the past two years. The survey
questions were very similar from year to year, with 1973 being the most
unique. All surveys focused on victimization, fear, and perceived risk
of being victims of the target crimes. Other questions explored
perceptions of and attitudes toward police, neighborhood problems, and
neighbors. The surveys also included questions on household and
respondent characteristics.