Assessing Exposure to Violence Using Multiple Informants: Application of Hierarchical Linear Model

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72634/1/1469-7610.00692.pd

Unpacking the Racial Disparity in Crime from a Racialized General Strain Theory Perspective

Criminologists have long theorized the relationship between race and crime using traditional criminological theories, suggesting that Blacks simply experience more factors conducive to crime than Whites. Race scholars have criticized this “add and stir” approach and, instead, argue for race-based explanations. Racialized General Strain Theory (RGST) is the first traditional approach to address this call to action. To date, however, little research has fully assessed RGST’s propositions. Using the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, we find mixed support for RGST. Findings also suggest racial differences in experiences and responses to strain are much more complicated than originally theorized

Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Systematic Social Observation, 1994-1998

The purpose of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods was to understand how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. This included an extensive undertaking on understanding the causes and the pathways of juvenile delinquency, adult crime, substance abuse, and violence. The Project had a focus on studying problematic behavior as well as an interest in social competence. The long-term objectives were to create knowledge that would inform violence prevention strategies and help develop better approaches to the promotion of social competence in children from infancy to young adulthood. The Project combined two studies into one comprehensive design. The first study was an intensive study of Chicago's neighborhoods including their social, economic, organizational, political, and cultural structures, and the changes that take place within these structures. This was achieved through data collection efforts at the community level, including a community survey of Chicago residents, interviews with neighborhood experts, systematic social observations involving block by block videotaping, and analyses of school, police, court and other agency records. The second study was a longitudinal cohort study involving seven randomly selected cohorts of children, adolescents, and young adults, looking at the changing circumstances of their lives and the personal characteristics that may lead them towards or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. PHDCN is comprised of five components: I-a longitudinal Study with an embedded intensive study of infants; II-a Community Survey; III-an Observational Study of Neighborhoods; IV-a Neighborhood Expert Survey; and V-Administrative data. Neighborhoods were operationally defined as 343 clusters of city blocks from Chicago's 847 populated census tracts. The main objective of the Systematic Social Observation (SSO) was to measure the effects of neighborhood characteristics upon young people's development, specifically the variables associated with youth violence. SSO is a standardized approach for directly observing the physical, social, and economic characteristics of neighborhoods, one block at a time. In 1995, the PHDCN initiated a combined person-based and video-taped approach to collecting systematic observations of neighborhood. 80 of the 343 Neighborhood Clusters were used in this study. Once the sampling was complete, the block face (the block segment on one side of the street) became the unit of observation. Using videotape and observer logs, data were collected in the 80 sampled Chicago neighborhoods. Only a sample of block faces were selected for coding due to budget expenses. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) collected the data for the SSO. Between June and September of 1995, trained observers from the NORC drove a sports Utility Vehicle down every block within the 80 sampled neighborhoods. The videographer videotaped both sides of each block, while the observers recorded characteristics of each block face on observer logs. Further coding of the videotapes and observer logs were conducted by the NORC staff. Items assessed included: land use; residential housing; commercial industrial buildings; drinking establishments; recreational facilities; street conditions; security persons visible; children visible; teenagers visible; traffic; the physical condition of buildings; cigarette; cigars on street or gutter; garbage, litter on street or sidewalks; empty beer bottles visible in streets; tagging graffiti; graffiti painted over; gang graffiti; abandoned cars; condoms on sidewalk; needles/syringed on sidewalk; political message graffiti. Also assessed were: Adults loitering or congregating; people drinking alcohol; peer group; gang indicators present; people intoxicated; adults fighting or hostilely arguing; prostitution on streets; and people selling drugs. The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study (videotaped data from this wave of data collection). If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data

Adolescent Health Care Evaluation Study, 1984-1991

This longitudinal study was originally designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a large scale program to improve health care for high-risk adolescents. Data were gathered from seven of the clinics receiving funding from the program and three comparison clinics. The first two waves of data were collected in 1984-1985 (N=2,788) and 1985-1986 (N=2,415). The predominantly working class sample was 76% female and 71% African-American. Data were gathered through a highly structured interview assessing such topics as reasons for attending the clinic, other health services used, physical and mental health status, family background, school adjustment, peer relations, stressful events, social adjustment and supports, health practices, and extracurricular activities. Portions of the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA) were included in the interview schedule to examine aggressive or antisocial traits, and portions of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) was used to assess drug and alcohol use/abuse, tobacco use, physical symptoms, and psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety. The second wave interview contained a section on changes in health status and satisfaction with medical services received at this time. Additional data were gathered on specific treatment for problems identified at wave one. Participants' medical records were also reviewed and abstracted using a structured protocol. The goal of the third and fourth waves was to examine how the combination of person and environment explains change in HIV risk behaviors during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood. A stratified random sub sample of the participants from the first two waves was followed up in 1989-1990 (N=602) and in 1990-1991 (N=548). Follow-up of participants may only be conducted with the collaboration of the contributor

Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Infant Assessment Unit, 1994-2001

The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) was designed to understand how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development, with a special focus on the causes and the pathways of juvenile delinquency, adult crime, substance abuse, and violence. Long-term objectives were to create knowledge that would inform violence prevention strategies and help develop better approaches to the promotion of social competence in children from infancy to young adulthood. The Project combined two studies into one comprehensive design. The first study was an intensive study of Chicago's neighborhoods including their social, economic, organizational, political, and cultural structures, and the changes that take place within these structures. This was achieved through data collection efforts at the community level, including a community survey of Chicago residents, interviews with neighborhood experts, systematic videotaped observations of city blocks, and analyses of school, police, court and other agency records. The second study used a longitudinal cohort study of seven randomly selected cohorts of children, adolescents, and young adults to look at the changing circumstances of their lives and the personal characteristics that may lead them towards or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. PHDCN is organized as five components: 1) Longitudinal study with an embedded intensive study of infants; 2) Community survey; 3) an Observational study of neighborhoods; 4) a Neighborhood expert survey; and 5) Administrative data. Neighborhoods were operationally defined as 343 clusters of city blocks from Chicago's 847 populated census tracts. The purpose of the Infant Assessment Unit wave of data collection was to include the youngest Project cohort by examining the "effects of prenatal and early postnatal risk conditions on health and cognitive functioning in the first year of life," and to "establish links between early developmental processes and the onset of antisocial behavior in the preschool period or in the earliest years of regular school and to measures the strength of this developmental pathway." Infants received an additional assessment at 6 months. Measures assessed visual recognition and memory, physical health and birth complications, temperament, and family environment. Videotaped records were used to record the response of the infant to different types of stimulation, as well as to capture interactions between the parent and infant to determine empathic responsiveness of the parent, encouragement and guidance, and overall psychopathology. The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study (videotape data). If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data

Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy

It is hypothesized that collective efficacy, defined as social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good, is linked to reduced violence. This hypothesis was tested on a 1995 survey of 8782 residents of 343 neighborhoods in Chicago, Illinois. Multilevel analyses showed that a measure of collective efficacy yields a high between-neighborhood reliability and is negatively associated with variations in violence, when individual-level characteristics, measurement error, and prior violence are controlled. Associations of concentrated disadvantage and residential instability with violence are largely mediated by collective efficacy.Sociolog

Should some illegal drugs be legalised?

tag=1 data=Should some illegal drugs be legalized? by Ethan A. Nadelmann, Mark A. R.Kleiman, Felton J. Earls tag=2 data=Nadelmann, Ethan A.%Kleiman, Mark A.R.%Earls, Felton J. tag=3 data=Issues in Science and Technology. tag=6 data=Summer 1990 tag=7 data=43-49. tag=8 data=DRUGS%USA tag=9 data=LEGALISATION%DECRIMINALISATION tag=10 data=Three experts debate whether current law enforcement and public health policies ought to be extended, improved, or replaced. tag=11 data=1990/2/8 tag=12 data=236 tag=13 data=CABThree experts debate whether current law enforcement and public health policies ought to be extended, improved, or replaced

Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Community Survey, 1994 - 1995

The purpose of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods was to understand how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. This included an extensive undertaking on understanding the causes and the pathways of juvenile delinquency, adult crime, substance abuse, and violence. The Project had a focus on studying problematic behavior as well as an interest in social competence. The long-term objectives were to create knowledge that would inform violence prevention strategies and help develop better approaches to the promotion of social competence in children from infancy to young adulthood. The Project combined two studies into one comprehensive design. The first study was an intensive study of Chicago's neighborhoods including their social, economic, organizational, political, and cultural structures, and the changes that take place within these structures. This was achieved through data collection efforts at the community level, including a community survey of Chicago residents, interviews with neighborhood experts, systematic social observations involving block by block videotaping, and analyses of school, police, court and other agency records. The second study was a longitudinal cohort study involving seven randomly selected cohorts of children, adolescents, and young adults, looking at the changing circumstances of their lives and the personal characteristics that may lead them towards or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. PHDCN is comprised of five components: I-a longitudinal Study with an embedded intensive study of infants; II-a Community Survey; III-an Observational Study of Neighborhoods; IV-a Neighborhood Expert Survey; and V-Administrative data. Neighborhoods were operationally defined as 343 clusters of city blocks from Chicago's 847 populated census tracts.The Community Survey is a multidimensional assessment by Chicago residents of their neighborhoods. The Survey evaluated the structural conditions and organization of neighborhoods in Chicago with respect to such critical dimensions as dynamic structure of the local community; the neighborhood organizational/political structure; cultural values; informal social control; formal social control; and social cohesion. The Survey consisted of household interviews with 8,782 Chicago residents aged 18 and older from all 343 neighborhood clusters. The NCs were constructed to be internally homogenous with respect to socioeconomic and ethnic mix, housing density, and family. Variables assessed included "Social, Economic, and Demographic Structure";"Organizational/Political Structure";"Informal Social Control";"Social Cohesion";"Social Disorder"; and "Cultural Structure"

Complete unilateral section of the pyramidal tract at the medullary level in Macaca mulatta

A short movie was shown to illustrate the motor deficits in hand usage which result in the adult monkey after complete unilateral section of the medullary pyramid at the level of the trapezoid body. The animal (68-70) was one of 8 in which unilateral or bilateral pyramidal section was undertaken for the primary purpose of studying the effects of pyramidal tract section on movements elicited by electrical stimulation of the rolandic region of the cerebral cortex. The results obtained in these 8 animals formed the subject of the J. Hughlings Jackson Memorial Lecture given at the Montreal Neurological Institute on May 11, 1971