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The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

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compris<strong>in</strong>g ma<strong>in</strong>ly Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. It is important to note that over thecourse of the program period Pilsen was undergo<strong>in</strong>g some gentrification.<strong>The</strong> Ill<strong>in</strong>ois Crim<strong>in</strong>al Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) provided aggregate <strong>in</strong>cidentdata on gang crimes for both the program and comparison areas. ICJIA’s Early Warn<strong>in</strong>gSystem/Geo-archive data set is one of the most reliable and comprehensive data sets on gangactivity <strong>in</strong> the country. It is based on <strong>in</strong>formation from case and supplemental reports of the<strong>Chicago</strong> Police Department and conta<strong>in</strong>s <strong>in</strong>formation both at the <strong>in</strong>cident and offender level. <strong>The</strong><strong>in</strong>cident data <strong>in</strong>cludes all gang offenses verified by the <strong>Chicago</strong> Police Department, and providesthe most complete and accurate picture available of the total amount of gang crime be<strong>in</strong>gcommitted <strong>in</strong> the city. <strong>The</strong> <strong>in</strong>cident-level data <strong>in</strong>cludes <strong>in</strong>formation on the type of offensecommitted, date, time and location of the <strong>in</strong>cident, and the number of victims and offenders<strong>in</strong>volved along with their correspond<strong>in</strong>g gang affiliations. Offender-level data providesdemographic <strong>in</strong>formation on those <strong>in</strong>dividuals <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> the reported gang <strong>in</strong>cident. However,offender-level data may not be entirely complete, s<strong>in</strong>ce all offenders <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> a particular<strong>in</strong>cident are not always identified or arrested. Nevertheless, useful <strong>in</strong>formation concern<strong>in</strong>g theage, race, and gender of the <strong>in</strong>volved offenders is available, and, when used <strong>in</strong> conjunction with<strong>in</strong>cident-level data, provides a measure of considerable and important detail. 1A key criterion for measur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Project</strong> impact at the aggregate level was serious gangmotivatedviolence. An <strong>in</strong>dex was constructed by comb<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g reports of <strong>in</strong>cidents of the mostserious violent gang offenses: homicides, aggravated batteries with a handgun or other firearm,1Data for all non-lethal violent <strong>in</strong>cidents for one month, December of 1994, are miss<strong>in</strong>g across all Districts. Also, <strong>in</strong>some <strong>in</strong>stances, there were offender data but no <strong>in</strong>cident data. In these cases, s<strong>in</strong>ce it was not clear why thesediscrepancies occurred, we <strong>in</strong>cluded only offender data for which we also had <strong>in</strong>cident data.15.4

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