MENU TITLE: Project on Human Development in Chicago.
Neighborhoods: A Research Update                 

Series: NIJ Research in Brief
Published: February 1997
9 pages
19,249 bytes

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice

Research in Brief

Jeremy Travis, Director  

February 1997

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Issues and Findings

Discussed in this Brief: The key milestones reached
by the Project on Human Development in Chicago
Neighborhoods, an unprecedented longitudinal study
supported by the National Institute of Justice and
the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. 

Key issues: The Project's 8-year research study
will attempt to determine how individual
personalities, family relationships, school
environment, and type of community interact to
contribute to delinquency and criminal behavior
over time. In the Project's first 2 years,
researchers gathered data using the following
measures: a community survey, social observation, a
survey of neighborhood experts, and interviews with
7,000 children and adolescents and their primary
caregivers as part of the first wave of a
longitudinal cohort study. Although the researchers
are observing areas throughout Chicago, they have
identified 80 neighborhoods as the focus for the
longitudinal cohort study.

Preliminary findings: The community survey drew
responses from more than 8,700 adult residents of
neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Respondents
expressed their opinions on topics such as
perceived violence, neighborhood decline, stability
and cohesion, signs of disorder, and social
control. This survey will be repeated during the
fourth and eighth years of the study.

A second component of the research, systematic
social observation, involves observing and
videotaping more than 27,000 face blocks in the 80
neighborhoods selected for intensive study.
Videotaping was conducted during the first year;
subsequent taping will occur during the fourth and
eighth years.

The neighborhood expert survey posed questions to
community leaders in business, religion, law
enforcement, community organization, education, and
politics who have specialized knowledge of their
neighborhoods.

For the longitudinal cohort study, seven age
cohorts -- from prenatal to age 18 -- will be
tracked for 7 additional years so researchers can
examine development from birth through age 26.
Additionally, 500 6-month-old infants are receiving
a comprehensive assessment of their cognitive
abilities, motor skills development, and
temperament.

Preliminary results from the community survey show
considerable variation in neighborhood perceptions
among residents living in the same community.
Researchers will be looking at indicators of
neighborhood cohesion to see how these different
perceptions affect neighborhood stability. The
researchers recently added a new interview to
measure lifetime and recent exposure to violence. 

Target audience: Social scientists; juvenile
delinquency, substance abuse, and violence
specialists and researchers; and Federal, State,
and local policymakers.

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Project on Human Development in Chicago
Neighborhoods: A Research Update

by Felton J. Earls, Harvard School of Public
Health, and Christy A. Visher, National Institute
of Justice

How do individual personalities, family
relationships, school environment, and type of
community interact to contribute to delinquency and
criminal behavior? The Project on Human Development
in Chicago Neighborhoods is an unprecedented
longitudinal study that aims to answer this
question by examining the development of
delinquency, criminal behavior, and substance abuse
from birth to young adulthood, with a particular
focus on the effects of community and neighborhood
contexts on individual behavior. The National
Institute of Justice, in partnership with the John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is
supporting this project to generate informed
recommendations for crime prevention and
intervention strategies.

The Project is combining two studies into a single
integrated design: a series of data collection
efforts at the community level and a longitudinal
cohort study. In 1996, the Project on Human
Development in Chicago Neighborhoods reached
several important milestones. This Research in
Brief highlights the Project's recent
accomplishments and reviews the status of the
Project.[1]

A study of Chicago's neighborhoods

The Project's unique vision is to examine
individuals and their communities -- as well as
individuals in their communities -- as both change
over time. In 1990, the Project convened a planning
workshop that resulted in a community design for
data collection efforts. Three measures were
developed:

o A community survey of randomly drawn adult
household residents in all neighborhoods in the
city limits of Chicago.

o An observational study of a subsample of 80
neighborhoods from which the longitudinal cohort
study sample is being obtained.

o A survey of neighborhood experts -- leaders in
each community -- from the 80 neighborhoods in the
observational study.

With the help of two subcontractors, Abt Associates
and the National Opinion Research Center, the
Project completed these measures in 1995 and 1996.

Community survey. For the community survey,
in-person interviews were conducted with more than
8,700 Chicago residents. Information was gathered
on perceived violence, neighborhood decline,
stability and cohesion, signs of disorder, economic
and political structure, neighborhood resources,
and social control. Residents were interviewed in
all sections of Chicago, but proportionally more
interviews were conducted in the 80 neighborhoods
selected for the longitudinal study. (See "Defining
Chicago Neighborhoods.") The response rate for the
community survey was 78 percent in the 80 selected
neighborhoods, with an overall response rate of 73
percent.

Observational study. Systematic social observation
is the second component of the community design.
This innovative methodology measures each
community's social organization and how it changes
over time. Observations were made during the first
year; subsequent observations will be conducted in
the fourth and eighth years of the study.

A team of six observers videotaped each "face
block" (one side of a block) in the 80 Chicago
neighborhoods selected for intensive analysis; more
than 27,000 face blocks are being studied. Video
cameras affixed to a van recorded life and behavior
in each neighborhood from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., 7 days
a week, during the summer of 1995. The team also
kept observer logs about residents' activities and
how they related to one another, as well as the
appearance of the community, i.e., whether there
was garbage on the streets or sidewalks, if there
were abandoned cars, or if parking rules were being
violated. The initial systematic social observation
identified more than 200 variables, including
features of the face block, presence of people,
predominant land use (i.e., commercial or
residential), and people's reaction to the van.

Expert survey. The neighborhood expert survey asked
systematic questions of residents who, based on
their leadership roles in the community, have
specialized knowledge of their neighborhoods'
social characteristics. The design called for
interviews with experts in six areas: education,
religion, business, politics, law enforcement, and
community organization. Experts were randomly
selected from a list of identified community
leaders; this list was augmented by other
knowledgeable persons in the community who were
nominated by the initial respondents to the
neighborhood expert survey. Interviews were
completed with 2,822 experts, for a completion rate
of 86 percent.

Additional data. These three data sets pertaining
to the community are being prepared for analysis.
In addition to completing these three surveys, the
Project acquired police incident files for 1990-
1995. Public health and other official records also
were obtained. Census data for 1990, such as
poverty concentration and ethnic residence
patterns, have been matched to Chicago's
neighborhood areas, including the 80 neighborhoods
in the study. (See "Preliminary Results From the
Community Survey.")

The cohort study

Enrolling Project participants. The Project's
participants in the longitudinal cohort study are
drawn from the 80 identified neighborhoods
previously discussed. Equal numbers of males and
females in seven age cohorts (birth, 3, 6, 9, 12,
15, and 18 years) are being selected from
African-American, Hispanic, white, and mixed ethnic
communities and from all social classes within
these communities. The Project is on course to
enroll and interview 7,000 subjects and their
primary caregivers by February 1997. Interviews in
the first year include questions about impulse
control and sensation-seeking traits, cognitive and
language development, leisure activities,
delinquency and substance use, friends' activities,
and self-perception, attitudes, and values.
Interviews with caregivers focus on family
structure, parent characteristics, parent-child
relationships, parent discipline style, family
mental health, and family history of criminal
behavior and drug use. Project participants and
caregivers are interviewed separately; interviews
are given in English, Spanish, or Polish.

Intensive assessment. As part of Wave 1, the
Project also is completing intensive assessments of
500 infants aged 6 months and their primary
caregivers. A separate unit of specially trained
research assistants is gathering information on
each infant's growth and health, cognitive
capabilities, and motor skills. The unit is also
videotaping the interaction between infants and
caregivers. This assessment responds to the
Attorney General's strong interest in the
development of infants and children during the
period from birth to age 3 and how these processes
may be linked to later delinquency and criminal
behavior.

As projected, the researchers encountered several
challenges during the startup phase, including
overcoming community resistance to research in
minority urban neighborhoods, daily monitoring of a
complex array of field operations, and coordinating
data management activities. The only significant
revision in the research design was a decision to
reduce the number of age cohorts from nine to seven
(the age 21 and age 24 cohorts were eliminated).
The researchers hope to be able to increase the
followup period in the study's later years to
offset the loss of the young adults. However,
because each age group is tracked for 8 years, the
age 18 cohort will be assessed annually up to age
26.

Designs for 1997

Planning for the Project's third year began in the
summer of 1996, including pilot testing new
sections of the interview. In addition to gathering
second-year information on topics covered during
the first interview, the Project also will gather
details on participants' exposure to violence in
community, school, and family environments. The
exposure-to-violence interview, created
specifically for this Project, will assess both
witnessing and experiencing violent events.[2] In
Wave 2, Project participants will also be
questioned about a wide range of life events and
social stressors, perceived self-competence,
health, and ethnic identity.

Community characteristics. Analyses of data
collected thus far have begun, particularly of the
vast amounts of information gathered concerning
characteristics of Chicago's communities,
community-based crime and victimization statistics,
and census data. (See "Initial Findings.")
Preliminary analyses reveal considerable variation
among residents living within a neighborhood in
their perceptions of neighborhood life, such as
whether residents approve of teenage drinking or
drug use. Such indicators of neighborhood cohesion
may affect neighborhood stability and may be
related to neighborhood disorder, decline, and
criminal activity -- factors the Project will
examine during the next year.

To explore the effects of neighborhoods on
individual attitudes and behaviors, including
substance abuse and criminality, the Project plans
to link interview data from the cohort study to
data gathered as part of the community study. In
particular, the Project is studying the cultural
and economic links to poor mental health and
antisocial behavior by examining the role of
neighborhood decline, mobility, and composition,
reduced supervision of youths, poor access to jobs,
and weakened ties to formal and informal social
networks. These initial analyses are under way; a
preliminary report is expected in spring 1997. In
the past year, the Project team also has made
substantial advances in developing software for
data analysis using hierarchical linear modeling
procedures.

The Project on Human Development in Chicago
Neighborhoods enjoys broad local support throughout
the city. Chicago will indeed benefit from the
extensive data being collected in its communities.
Moreover, the research community and the Project's
sponsors -- including its newest sponsor, the
National Institute of Mental Health -- are looking
forward to the Project's results. Preliminary
reports demonstrate that the Project will provide
unprecedented information about the origins of
delinquency, substance abuse, and criminal behavior
and how to design effective strategies for
preventive intervention, treatment, rehabilitation,
and sanctions.

Notes

1. A technical report, which discusses the sampling
plan, measurement strategies, and pilot analyses,
is available in limited quantities from the
National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Call
800-851-3420 to request a copy.

2. The pilot testing of this new survey and some
preliminary analyses are discussed in Assessing the
Exposure of Urban Youth to Violence, NIJ Research
Preview, November 1996, FS 000161.

The sidebar material was presented in a Research in
Progress seminar by Robert Sampson, entitled
"Communities and Crime: A Study in Chicago," in
April 1996. This videotape is available from the
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, NCJ
156924, $19 U.S., $24 Canada and other countries.

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Defining Chicago Neighborhoods

In order to measure community characteristics for
the cohort study, the researchers had to define
neighborhoods within Chicago's 77 commonly
recognized community areas. Using the city's 1990
census data, the researchers divided the 77 areas
into 343 neighborhood clusters -- areas that are
similar in characteristics such as income, family
structure, and race and ethnicity -- with average
populations of 8,000. The researchers then analyzed
each cluster in terms of socioeconomic status,
dependence on public assistance, unemployment
rates, and race and ethnicity. This analysis helped
researchers identify 80 neighborhoods that showed
sufficient demographic variability across clusters,
which will enable later measures to detect
neighborhood effects.

The Project's community survey of more than 8,700
adult residents encompassed all 343 neighborhood
clusters. To ensure that the residents were spread
equally across the clusters, researchers surveyed a
minimum number of adults from each neighborhood
cluster.

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Preliminary Results From the Community Survey

According to preliminary results of the Project's
community survey, a community's ability to act
collectively to achieve common goals may be related
to its rates of victimization, delinquency, and
crime.

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Initial Findings

When the researchers combined census records with
responses to the community survey and expert
interviews, they identified three factors that seem
to be related to a community's level of informal
social control -- defined by the researchers as the
capacity of a community to regulate itself
according to desired principles and values, or to
realize collective goals. The first factor is
concentrated disadvantage. In many of Chicago's
neighborhoods, as in those of other large cities,
there is a correlation between race and poverty,
unemployment, and female-headed families. The
second factor is ethnicity, which is important in
measuring new patterns of immigration. The third
factor is residential stability, or the frequency
with which residents move in and out of a
neighborhood.

According to results of these preliminary analyses,
concentrated disadvantage and residential stability
appear to be the most important factors related to
levels of informal social control. For example,
areas with a high concentration of disadvantage and
high residential instability had lower levels of
informal social control. The findings also indicate
that informal social control has a significant
negative effect on levels of crime. Areas that were
found to have high levels of informal social
control had relatively lower rates of crime,
delinquency, and victimization.

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This project was supported under award 93-IJ-CX-
K005 from the National Institute of Justice, Office
of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, to
the Project on Human Development in Chicago
Neighborhoods. Felton J. Earls is Director of the
Project on Human Development in Chicago
Neighborhoods (PHDCN) and a professor at the
Harvard School of Public Health. Christy A. Visher
is Program Manager for PHDCN and Science Adviser to
the Director, National Institute of Justice. The
Project team also includes Albert J. Reiss, Yale
University (Co-Director); Stephen Buka
(Co-Principal Investigator), Harvard School of
Public Health; Daniel Kindlon (Research Associate),
Harvard School of Public Health; Robert Sampson,
University of Chicago (Scientific Director for
Community Design); and Stephen Raudenbush, Michigan
State University (Scientific Director for
Analysis). For more information about the Project,
write PHDCN, Harvard School of Public Health, 677
Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.

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Findings and conclusions of the research reported
here are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the official position or
policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. 

The National Institute of Justice is a component of
the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes
the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims
of Crime.

NCJ 163603