NCJ Number
176560
Journal
Journal of Quantitative Criminology Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Dated: December 1998 Pages: 331-351
Date Published
1998
Length
21 pages
Annotation
The Victimization Survey of Public Housing Residents (VSPHR) was initiated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was conducted in two large eastern cities, and was the first systematic attempt at applying approached used in the 1992 Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to the public housing setting.
Abstract
The VSPHR differed from the NCVS in that it aimed to create a survey instrument and associated methodology mainly for use by individual public housing authorities (PHA) to evaluate the effects of crime prevention programs through pre-test and post-test surveys of groups of residents. Among the crucial methodological considerations were to use purposive sampling for choosing developments to survey, not to pay participants, and not to use residents as interviewers. The sample of 510 households was split among (1) households with and without telephone service, (2) personal and telephone interviews, and (3) single and multiple household participants. Ninety-nine percent of the participants were black, compared to 54 percent nationally. However, the percentages of female-headed households were similar for the sample (71 percent) and the national data (approximately 75 percent). Victimization rates were higher for telephone participants than for personal interviews. The research demonstrated the feasibility of using an established victimization methodology in relatively large, urban public housing developments were crime and disorder were considered serious problems. It also suggested the need to check telephone prevalence before deciding on the interview mode and to compile a listing of telephone-eligible participants to avoid the frame-inefficiency problem experienced by VSPHR. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is currently in the process of replicating VSPHR. Figures, table, and 61 references