The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

and Pilsen. We did not expect that changes in the perceptions of the organization respondentswould be as marked as those of the resident respondents, who were more directly affected by thegang problem and by the various socialization and control efforts of the Program’s outreachyouth workers, police, and probation officers.Resident RespondentsSampling Design. To develop the initial community resident sample, local households wereselected on a cluster-sampling basis from the streets (and sections of streets) with the highestgang violence activity. Data determining violence activity were obtained from local ChicagoPolice District police officers, the Chicago Police Department’s Gang Crime Unit, the EarlyWarning System (“Hot Spot”) homicide project directed by Dr. Carolyn Block of the IllinoisCriminal Justice Information Authority, the opinions of key local community-organization staff,the observations of Project community youth gang workers, and from the pinpointing of gangyouth hang-outs and concentrations of graffiti by senior Project researchers. There was a highdegree of consensus as to which blocks and segments of blocks were the locations of the mostfrequent and serious gang activities. Approximately 10 street locations were selected in eachcommunity. Project interviewers from the community went to preassigned buildings or housesto interview heads-of-households in residences in the selected streets. Almost all interviewswere conducted in Spanish. The initial (Time I) response rate for all households contacted in ourpurposive and stratified sample was approximately 65% in each community.Resident Interviews. The initial plan was to interview the same residents at Time I and at Time16.3