Detroit Citizens’ Use of Social Control in Reaction to Crime Scenarios
Primary Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Wareham, jwareham@wayne.edu
Students involved in this project will learn about experimental design and use of the factorial vignette, macro-level social control theories, and citizen involvement in social control. Participants will begin with a brief reading list on research methodology for experimental designs through the use of random factorial vignettes, provided by the faculty mentor. In addition, the faculty mentor for this project will provide students with some of the relevant research and theoretical literature on social control, although students will still engage in the literature review process during the early stages of the project. Students will be using data from quantitative surveys of Detroit residents in neighborhoods with varying socio-economic characteristics collected from an earlier study (previously approved by the university’s IRB). The survey included several factorial vignettes with randomly assigned dimensions that could affect a citizen’s willingness to intervene, such as time of day, suspect’s description, whether suspect saw the respondent watching him/her, and property damage/personal injury. Respondents were asked to indicate which formal (e.g., call 9-1-1) and informal social control (e.g., yell for help) responses they would utilize, if any, for each vignette. Neighborhood characteristics for crime, population, and housing were also collected and linked to each respondent. Students will need to learn about the survey instrument and its design, as well as the methodology used to collect the data in the original study. This process will be approached with a focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the original study, as well as limitations of secondary data. This research team will construct hypotheses, manage quantitative data in SPSS and conduct analyses to test their hypotheses. The team will learn how to disseminate their findings to diverse audiences (e.g., other students, faculty, attendees at undergraduate research showcase, etc.) and create an effective poster to summarize their project. The final stage will involve the team making plans to submit their work as a manuscript to an academic, peer-reviewed journal.
Police Legitimacy, Procedural Justice & Cooperation Across Detroit Neighborhoods
Primary Faculty Mentor: Jim Geistman, harold.geistman@wayne.edu
Students on this team project will explore the literature on police legitimacy, citizen cooperation with police, and survey research methodology. Given the limited time-frame, faculty mentors will assist students with the literature review process by providing a brief reading list of relevant research, although students will still be required to engage in the literature review process during the early stages of the project. Students will learn about survey design and data collection methods, as well as working with secondary data, by analyzing and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the original study. In addition, as a means of providing students with some context, students will be “introduced” to the neighborhoods where the original study was conducted. The faculty mentors will lead the team through the process of identifying hypotheses, managing quantitative data in SPSS and conducting analyses to test their hypotheses. Finally, the team will prepare a poster for the research symposium and set a timetable and task list in preparation for manuscript development and submission to an academic, peer-reviewed journal.
Exploring Citizens’ Perceptions of Communities, Crime, & Justice in the Aftermath of Razing Detroit
Primary Faculty Mentor: Patricia Wren- Department Chair of Public Health, pwren@wayne.edu
Students involved in this project will explore the impact of Detroit’s demolition program on repurposing parcels for communal use and changes in residents’ perceptions of their community, crime, justice, and their quality of life, more generally. This project will involve two phases. The first stage of this research will involve selecting a random subsample of demolitions and leverage existing technology (e.g., Google Maps, Mapillary, etc.) to perform virtual assessments of parcels post demolition to determine whether they appear to serve as communal space (e.g., evidence of a garden, gathering place, etc.), be maintained (e.g., parcel appears manicured), serve as a source of disorganization (e.g., illegal dumping). Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the planned second stage of this research (resident surveys) is not possible this year. Instead, students will help develop a survey instrument that will be administered annually to residents of the City of Detroit. Student will work closely with the faculty research mentor to develop a set of research questions, coding rubric for the virtual assessments, and an instrument for resident surveys. Students will also gain hands-on experience with original data collection efforts, data analyses, manuscript drafting, and presenting research findings to diverse audiences (e.g., faculty, students, practitioners, etc.). Near the conclusion of the program, we will plan a scope of work for the impending academic year.