Police referral practices and social service agency practices in three metropolitan areas, 1977

Elinor Ostrom, Roger B. Parks, Gordon P. Whitaker, Criminal Justice Archive and Information Network, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research

The dataset contains two related studies conducted in the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, and Rochester, New York. The study of police referral practices provides information on the types of calls made to police departments, the referrals made to social service agencies from these calls, and the pattern of citizen demands. Data for this study were collected from 26,465 calls for police service at 21 police departments. The 36 variables include the nature of the call, characteristics of the caller, and the type of agency receiving the referral. The sampling frame for the study of social service agency practices was any agency within the three metropolitan areas that agreed to participate in the study, accepted police referrals, and dealt with at least one of ten selected social problems (e.g., drug abuse, suicide prevention, aid to the...