Survey Statistics Research Articles

The Organizational Correlates of Terrorism Response Preparedness in Local Police Departments

Since the development of homeland security, scholars have debated the relationship between community-oriented policing and homeland security innovations in local police departments. Most of the literature that assesses this relationship has been “conjecture or anecdotal,” and few studies have systematically measured these impacts. Few studies have examined the influence that organizational structures and administrative factors have on terrorism response preparedness among local law enforcement agencies. To fill these gaps, this study evaluates a national sample of local police agencies drawn from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2003 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) Survey. Results show that community policing efforts are positively correlated with terrorism preparedness efforts. Results also show that a number of organizational factors including organization size, budget per capita, and functional differentiation were positively correlated with terrorism preparedness, whereas formalization and spatial differentiation were negatively correlated.

Addressing onsite sampling in recreation site choice models

Independent experts and politicians have criticized statistical analyses of recreation behavior, which rely upon onsite samples due to their potential for biased inference. The use of onsite sampling usually reflects data or budgetary constraints, but can lead to two primary forms of bias in site choice models. First, the strategy entails sampling site choices rather than sampling individuals—a form of bias called endogenous stratification. Under these conditions, sample choices may not reflect the site choices of the true population. Second, exogenous attributes of the individuals sampled onsite may differ from the attributes of individuals in the population—the most common form in recreation demand is avidity bias. We propose addressing these biases by combining two the existing methods: Weighted Exogenous Stratification Maximum Likelihood estimation and propensity score estimation. We use the National Marine Fisheries Service's Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey to illustrate methods of bias reduction, employing both simulated and empirical applications. We find that propensity score based weights can significantly reduce bias in estimation. Our results indicate that failure to account for these biases can overstate anglers' willingness to pay for improvements in fishing catch, but weighted models exhibit higher variance of parameter estimates and willingness to pay.

Monitoring the coherence between ONS and PMI data - an update

In the last couple of years there has been strong interest in economic statistics as the UK economy recovers from its deepest post war recession. This article updates previous work examining the coherence between official economic data published by the Office for National Statistics and widely-used business survey data in the form of the Purchasing Managers Index to include this latest period.

Offender Rehabilitation: Examining Changes in Inmate Treatment Characteristics, Program Participation, and Institutional Behavior

The efficacy of offender rehabilitation has been a topic of much debate over the past few decades. While much of the corrections literature has focused on program effectiveness, less attention has been placed on the expansion and delivery of services to incarcerated offenders, and whether the advances that have been made with regard to rehabilitation have changed the nature of treatment delivery to inmates. Using data from three time points collected as part of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) survey of state inmates, this paper examines the criminogenic needs of offenders and how those needs have changed over time, the role inmate needs play in driving participation in institutional programs, and whether inmates with unmet treatment needs commit a disproportionate number of institutional infractions. The results suggest that inmate needs have changed substantially over the past decade, with the most extensive needs concentrated in a small proportion of inmates. Consequently, correctional institutions are not always been able to match offenders to the appropriate services, which may have a direct impact on institutional safety.

Non‐fatal construction industry fall‐related injuries treated in US emergency departments, 1998–2005

There is a growing recognition that common occupational injury surveillance systems in the US fail to reflect true injury risk; this failure limits efforts to accurately monitor efforts to prevent work-related injuries on a national level. Data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System occupational supplement (NEISS-Work) were used to describe fall-related injuries treated in US emergency departments among workers in the construction industry (1998-2005). These data do not require workers' compensation as the payer in order to be classified as work-related. Based on NEISS-Work estimates, a total of 555,700 (95% confidence interval (CI): 390,700-720,800) non-fatal work-related injuries among workers in the construction industry were the result of a fall, resulting in an annual rate of 70 (95% CI: 49-91) per 10,000 full-time equivalents. Younger workers had higher rates of falls, whereas older workers were more likely to suffer serious injuries. The majority of the injuries (70%) were precipitated by falls to a lower level from roofs, ladders, and scaffolding. The patterns of fall-related injuries identified in these data are consistent with other reports. In contrast to the declining rates of falls requiring days away from work reported through the Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, construction industry fall-related injury rates estimated through NEISS-Work remained unchanged from 1998 to 2005 providing another perspective on this serious cause of morbidity in the construction industry.

Focus on Authors

Focus on Authors

Urban television mediation of reality with professionalism and ethics of journalist in supporting role

Today's readers, viewers and listeners in a single day get as much information their ancestors in the 17th century for the their entire life. But so much information does not mean that the recipient of information today with a large number of medium and high availability of information is well informed. The subject of this paper is to analyze the central daily broadcast informative programs of three regional televisions in Niš during the last week of February, 2011. The aim of this paper is to prove that the growing presence of new technologies irreversibly change our daily habits, and therefore the local media opportunities. Good coordination and strategy can create a welcoming and attractive environment to attract young people as the largest group of users of new technologies. Such investment will return in the future because it is necessary to entertain and educate a new audience hungry for contemporary media and interactive programs. According to the Bureau of Statistics survey of 2010 in Serbia, 1,1 million citizens had the Internet connection. In 2009, 285,000 people (12.9%) used some electronic services of public administration, and 51.1% would like to use them. The fact that 4.76 million people or 82.3% use a mobile phone refers to the general trend of using information and communication technologies. This further opens up additional possibilities for emancipation of urban television.

Addressing Onsite Sampling in Recreation Site Choice Models

Independent experts and politicians have criticized statistical analyses of recreation behavior that rely upon onsite samples due to their potential for biased inference, prompting some to suggest support for these efforts should be curtailed. The use of onsite sampling usually reflects data or budgetary constraints but can lead to two primary forms of bias in site choice models. First, the strategy entails sampling site choices rather than sampling anglers – a form of bias called endogenous stratification. Under these conditions, sample choices may not reflect the site choices of the true population. Second, the exogenous attributes of the recreational users sampled onsite may differ from the attributes of users in the population – the most common form in recreation demand is avidity bias. We propose addressing these biases by combining two existing methods, Weighted Exogenous Stratification Maximum Likelihood Estimation (WESMLE) and propensity score estimation. We use the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey (MRFSS) to illustrate methods of bias reduction employing both simulation and empirical applications. We find that propensity score based weights can significantly reduce bias in estimation. Our results indicate that failure to account for these biases can overstate anglers’ willingness to pay for additional fishing catch.

Research Note:Hail to the Chief: Assessing the Economic Impact of Presidential Inaugurations on the Washington, DC, Local Economy

While presidential inaugurations routinely attract hundreds of thousands or more visitors to Washington, DC, for the quadrennial celebration, the authors' examination of employment from the Current Employment Statistics survey from 1939 to the present, and both employment and unemployment from the Current Population Survey from 1977 to the present, finds no noticeable effect from the event on either variable. The residents of DC should not expect an inauguration to make them any richer and the city should not count on any economic benefits generated by the event to cover the significant costs of hosting it.

Parental Volunteering

The No Child Left Behind legislation stipulates that schools offer volunteer opportunities to parents. This study examines the growth patterns of parent volunteerism after implementation of this legislation by national region, metropolitan status, gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey data on volunteers between 2002 and 2008 in a 2-year increment, we find the rate of parental volunteering for education actually decreased since 2002. Even after controlling for parents’ social-demographic characteristics, the likelihood of parents’ engaging in educational volunteering is still lower in 2008 than in prior years. Those who live in the Midwest region and nonmetropolitan areas are more likely to volunteer for education. Mothers, non-Hispanic Whites and citizens also have a higher chance of being involved in educational volunteering. In addition, Hispanic parents in the West are more likely to volunteer for education than their counterparts in the Northeast and South region.

Circumstances of injury in childhood and adolescence: current data and epidemiology

We investigated the population-related and social aspects of injuries in children and adolescents. In contrast to clinical case studies our focus was on risk groups, injury mechanisms and context of...

How things fall apart: Understanding the nature of internalizing through its relationship with impairment.

The literature suggests that internalizing psychopathology relates to impairment incrementally and gradually. However, the form of this relationship has not been characterized. This form is critical to understanding internalizing psychopathology, as it is possible that internalizing may accelerate in effect at some level of severity, defining a natural boundary of abnormality. Here, a novel method-semiparametric structural equation modeling-was used to model the relationship between internalizing and impairment in a sample of 8,580 individuals from the 2000 British Office for National Statistics Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity, a large, population-representative study of psychopathology. This method allows one to model relationships between latent internalizing and impairment without assuming any particular form a priori and to compare models in which the relationship is constant and linear. Results suggest that the relationship between internalizing and impairment is in fact linear and constant across the entire range of internalizing variation and that it is impossible to nonarbitrarily define a specific level of internalizing beyond which consequences suddenly become catastrophic in nature. Results demonstrate the phenomenological continuity of internalizing psychopathology, highlight the importance of impairment as well as symptoms, and have clear implications for defining mental disorder.

Graphical Causal Modeling of Protein Structural and Dynamical Features

The causal relationship between protein structural features and conformational dynamics is difficult to isolate experimentally because even seemingly small perturbations, such as point mutations, can simultaneously alter many physical properties of proteins. Using molecular dynamics simulation trajectories for a series of point mutations at a single solvent-exposed position on the protein GB1, for which experimental NMR spin relaxation data also are available [1], effects of various types of inter-residue interactions are isolated via a graph-theory-based approach to causal modeling [2] previously applied in the biological sciences mainly to functional MRI studies [3] and genomics [4]. This approach produces directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) in which protein structural features such as hydrogen bonds, inter-residue contacts, and order parameters are encoded as nodes; the presence of an edge in the graph implies a causal relationship between features and the directionality of the edge implies the direction of causation.[1] Mayer, KL et al. (2003). Nat. Struct. Biol. 10: 962-965.[2] Pearl, J. (2000). Cambridge University Press, London; Pearl, J. (2009). Statistics Surveys. 3:96-146; Spirtes et al. (2000). MIT Press, Cambridge.[3] Eichler, M. (2005). Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 360(1457): 953-967.[4] Maathius, MH et al. (2009). Ann. Stat. 37(6A): 3133-3164.

Why Do Bls Hours Series Tell Different Stories About Trends in Hours Worked?

Hours worked is an important economic indicator. In addition to being a measure of labor utilization, average weekly hours are inputs into measures of productivity and hourly wages, which are two key economic indicators. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' two hours series tell very different stories. Between 1973 and 2007 average weekly hours estimated from the BLS's household survey (the Current Population Survey or CPS) indicate that average weekly hours of nonagricultural wage and salary workers decreased slightly from 39.5 to 39.3. In contrast, average hours estimated from the establishment survey (the Current Employment Statistics survey or CES) indicate that hours fell from 36.9 to 33.8 hours per week. Thus the discrepancy between the two surveys increased from about two-and-a-half hours per week to about five-and-a-half hours. Our goal in the current study is to reconcile the differences between the CPS and CES estimates of hours worked and to better understand what these surveys are measuring. We examine a number of possible explanations for the divergence of the two series: differences in workers covered, multiple jobholding, differences in the hours concept (hours worked vs. hours paid), possible overreporting of hours in CPS, and changes in the length of CES pay periods. We can explain most of the difference in levels, but cannot explain the divergent trends.

Organizational Approaches to Drug Law Enforcement by Local Police Departments in the United States: Specialized Drug Units and Participation in Multi-Agency Drug Task Forces

This paper examines the factors associated with the decision of local police departments in the United States to operate specialized drug units or to participate in multi-jurisdictional drug task forces. Combining data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) Survey, the 2000 Census, and the Uniform Crime Report, we use both bivariate and multivariate methods to conduct the analysis. The findings indicate that county-level agencies, those with other formalized drug control efforts, high levels of violent crime, high degrees of task specialization and formalization, and high proportions of the resident population accounted for by renters were more likely to operate drug units, participate in multi-agency drug task forces, and allocate more officers per capita to these efforts.

Measuring the economic effects of sea level rise on shore fishing

In this paper we develop estimates of the economic effects of sea level rise on marine recreational shore fishing in North Carolina, USA. The relationship between angler behavior and spatial differences in beach width is estimated using the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey and geospatial data. We exploit the empirical relationship between beach width and fishing site choice by simulating the effects of sea level rise on angler site choice. We find that reductions in beach width negatively affect the quality and number of fishing trips even as anglers adapt by using piers and bridges. Welfare losses are potentially substantial, ranging up 39% of the total value of marine shore fishing in North Carolina.

Secular trends in adult male smoking from 1992 to 2006 in South Korea: Age-specific changes with evolving tobacco-control policies

For years, South Korea has had one of the highest levels of tobacco use among males in the world, but a steady decline has been observed recently. This study examined how the smoking behaviour of male adults changed with age after the implementation of national tobacco control policies in 1995. Repeated cross-sectional study using a national survey. Data were obtained from the 1992, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2006 results of a repeated cross-sectional survey, the Social Statistics Survey. The smoking status of adult men was compared before (1992 and 1995 surveys) and after (1999, 2003 and 2006 surveys) the implementation of government-directed tobacco control policies using graphical methods and logistic regression analysis. After the implementation of tobacco control policies, the percentage of current male smokers decreased while the percentage of former smokers increased markedly. Smoking prevalence among older men (aged 50 years or more) reduced initially, and this decline was more pronounced after the tobacco control policies were implemented. Smoking prevalence in younger men (aged 30-49 years) declined in 2003 when more comprehensive tobacco control policies were implemented. This study suggests that comprehensive tobacco control policies in South Korea reduced smoking prevalence among males, initially among older men and later among both older men and younger men.

PRIOR REPORTS OF MEDICAL PROBLEMS AMONG INMATES

In the article “The Health and Health Care of US Prisoners: Results of a Nationwide Survey,” Wilper et al. state, “We are not aware of any study analyzing the prevalence of common chronic conditions or of access to medical and psychiatric care among the incarcerated population as a whole.”1(p666) We believe that readers should be aware of L. M. Maruschak's 2006 study, “Medical Problems of Jail Inmates,”2 and her 2008 report, “Medical Problems of Prisoners.”3 Also, D. J. James and L. E. Glaze coauthored a study, “Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates,” in 2006.4 These 3 publications presented analyses of data from 2 Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys, “Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2004” and “Survey of Inmates in Local Jails, 2002” (available at http://www.icpr.umich.edu/NACJD/ncrpc), which were the 2 data sources used by Wilper et al. Also, it would be helpful for the authors to clarify whether they believe that the figure they cite of twelve million annual releasees from jails and prisons represents unique persons or reflects some persons passing through institutions more than once in a one-year period.

A STUDY ON THE LIFE OF THE JAPANESE HOUSING STOCK ESTIMATED FROM THE HOUSE AND LAND STATISTICS SURVEY

This paper first proves that the life of the Japanese housing stock can be calculated depending solely on the housing stock data published in the House and Land Statistics Survey (the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) which has been regarded inappropriate for that purpose mainly because of its inconsistency with the flow data shown in the House Building Statistics (the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism). Having Applied the Kaplan-Meier's method, the life is given by the 50 percentile value of the accumulated survival ratio of the same cohort. The system dynamics model thus reconstructed from the House and Land Statistics Survey consequently shows a good accordance with the House Building Statistics. The change of the life since 1973 indicates that the life has been consistently becoming longer over the surveyed period, that houses built more recently have longer life, that rebuilding (houses rebuilt on the same lots) has been gradually increasing and so on. The increasing vacancy ratio (surplus stock), on the other hand, suggests the importance of further investigation into the regional difference in the housing needs particularly when the 200 year long life house project has been launched by the government and at the same time when regional disparities of wealth has become problematic.

Comparing Hours per Job in the CPS and the ATUS

The number of hours that people work is a key economic and social indicator. Thus, it is important to know whether household surveys measure hours worked correctly. In earlier studies (Frazis and Stewart 2004, 2007, 2008), we examined how hours worked in the Federal government's main economic household survey, the Current Population Survey (CPS), compare with time-diary data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). Most of our previous work concentrated on comparing hours worked per person per week for employed persons (Frazis and Stewart 2004, 2007). In Frazis and Stewart (2008), we compared hours worked per job for a particular class of jobs in an attempt to replicate the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) establishment survey, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey. In this article, we compare weekly hours worked per job for all jobs in the ATUS and the CPS. Hours worked per job are of interest for a variety of reasons. Studies of hourly wages are usually restricted to main jobs because many surveys do not collect earnings data for second jobs. Official productivity measures mainly use data from the CES (which are per-job estimates), but for jobs not covered by the CES?supervisors, nonproduction workers, and the self employed?productivity measures use data from the CPS.