Ecometrics in the Age of Big Data
Measuring and Assessing “Broken Windows” Using Large-scale Administrative Records
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6169995 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Tumminelli O''Brien (0000-0002-3799-8586, Harvard University Press), Robert J Sampson (0000-0003-4259-8146, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA), C Winship (0000-0002-0632-241X, Harvard University Press) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 101-147 |
| Publication date | 2015-04-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Methodology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0081-1750 • E-ISSN: 1467-9531 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0081175015576601 |
| OpenAlex | W2046957061 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 59 |
| References cited | 37 |
The collection of large-scale administrative records in electronic form by many cities provides a new opportunity for the measurement and longitudinal tracking of neighborhood characteristics, but one that will require novel methodologies that convert such data into research-relevant measures. The authors illustrate these challenges by developing measures of “broken windows” from Boston’s constituent relationship management (CRM) system (aka 311 hotline). A 16-month archive of the CRM database contains more than 300,000 address-based requests for city services, many of which reference physical incivilities (e.g., graffiti removal). The authors carry out three ecometric analyses, each building on the previous one. Analysis 1 examines the content of the measure, identifying 28 items that constitute two independent constructs, private neglect and public denigration. Analysis 2 assesses the validity of the measure by using investigator-initiated neighborhood audits to examine the “civic response rate” across neighborhoods. Indicators of civic response were then extracted from the CRM database so that measurement adjustments could be automated. These adjustments were calibrated against measures of litter from the objective audits. Analysis 3 examines the reliability of the composite measure of physical disorder at different spatiotemporal windows, finding that census tracts can be measured at two-month intervals and census block groups at six-month intervals. The final measures are highly detailed, can be tracked longitudinally, and are virtually costless. This framework thus provides an example of how new forms of large-scale administrative data can yield ecometric measurement for urban science while illustrating the methodological challenges that must be addressed
American Community Survey · Audit · Business · Cartography · Census · Cronbach's alpha · Data collection · Data science · Database · Geography · Measure (data warehouse · Psychometrics · Reliability (semiconductor · Scale (ratio · Sociology · Statistics · Accounting · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Mathematics · Urban Transport and Accessibility · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
The Other Side of the Broken Window
Urban Data Science
How and Why is Crime More Concentrated in Some Neighborhoods than Others
Policing Social Disorder and Broken Windows Theory
Eviction and the Dissolution of Neighborhoods
“Eyes” on the Street
Who ‘Tweets’ Where and When, and How Does it Help Understand Crime Rates at Places? Measuring the Presence of Tourists and Commuters in Ambient Populations
The Emergence and Evolution of Problematic Properties
Heard Shots – Call the Police? An Examination of Citizen Responses To Gunfire
The Effects of a Place-Based Intervention on Resident Reporting of Crime and Service Needs
Rating places and crime prevention
Utilizing geo-referenced imagery for systematic social observation of neighborhood disorder
Investigating the effect of people on the street and streetscape physical environment on the location choice of street theft crime offenders using street view images and a discrete spatial choice model
Graffiti and crime in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Neighborhood Blighted Property Removal and 311 Calls for Non‐Emergency Services
A roundtable discussion
Noise and the city
Perceived neighborhood disorder, racial-ethnic discrimination and leading risk factors for chronic disease among women
The Intersection of Neighborhood Environment and Adverse Childhood Experiences
The Real Gold Standard
Broken Windows, Informal Social Control, and Crime
Strengthening Sociological Research through Public Records Requests
The spatial diffusion of homicide in Mexico City
Community and Urban Places in a Digital World
Development and validation of statewide survey-based measures of livability in Connecticut
Parking in inner versus outer city spaces
Nonprobability Sampling and Twitter
Toward Equitable Micromobility
From shared micro-mobility to shared responsibility
St. Louis’s “urban prairie”
A socio-spatial analysis of neighbour complaints using large-scale administrative data
Lamp Lighters and Sidewalk Smoothers
Understanding Misdemeanor Enforcement
Does carnival contribute to crime? Examining the spatiotemporal effects of Mardi Gras on New Orleans Crime Trends (2012–2024)
Activity locations, residential segregation and the significance of residential neighbourhood boundary perceptions
Neighbourhood effects and beyond
Neighbourhood change and neighbour complaints
Not Even Our Own Facts
Crime Sensing with Big Data
Crowdsourcing Subjective Perceptions of Neighbourhood Disorder
Police Enforcement of Street Prostitution as a Quality-of-Life Offense
Call and Response? Neighborhood Inequality and Political Voice
From complaints to insights
The Problems with Neighbors
Neighborhood Distribution of Unsheltered Homelessness and its Temporal Changes
The Promises and Pitfalls of 311 Data
Building Holistic Evidence for Social Media Impact
Dog fouling and potholes
Gentrification, White Encroachment, and the Policing of Black Residents in Washington, DC
Researching Crime After a Disaster
An On-the-Ground Challenge to Uses of Spatial Big Data in Assessing Neighborhood Character
What are the threats and potentials of big data for qualitative research
Administrative mediation data as naturally-occurring records of disputes with neighbours and the unmaking of home
Racialized Reshuffling
Territoriality and the Emergence of Norms During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Contested Boundaries
Physical disorder and crime revisited
The role of administrative data in the big data revolution in social science research
Using small data to interpret big data
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Great American City
The Homevoter Hypothesis
The Parable of Google Flu
Relation between Neighborhood Environments and Obesity in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis
Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior
Incivilities, place attachment and crime
Using Google Street View to Audit Neighborhood Environments
Inferring friendship network structure by using mobile phone data
Perceptions of disorder
Computational Social Science
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Disorder and Decay
Breaking Away from Broken Windows
Disorder and Decline
A brief observational measure for urban neighborhoods
Seeing Disorder
The Effect of Residential Neighborhood on Child Behavior Problems in First Grade
Broken Windows and Low Adolescent Prosociality
Community perception
Voice and Equality
Ecometrics
Making Democracy Work
Managing the Urban Commons
Divergent Pathways of Gentrification
Objective and perceived neighborhood environment, individual SES and psychosocial factors, and self-rated health
An examination of processes linking perceived neighborhood disorder and obesity
Powerlessness and the Amplification of Threat
Talk Is Cheap
Contested Boundaries
| Unique citing works | 59 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5,36 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 58 |