5 questions for ... Christine Eith

Photo by Desirée Stover

TU and BPD join forces to produce

crime victim survey

TU has partnered with the Baltimore Police Department to survey crime victims’ satisfaction with officers’ responses. Christine Eith, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, designed the survey.

How did this survey come about?

Col. John P. Skinner, chief of the patrol division for the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), teaches at TU as an adjunct instructor. He expressed interest in having TU and the BPD collaborate on a survey measuring how crime victims respond to the police. Each organization brought resources to the table—they had the funding, and we had the research experience. We developed the survey over a two-month period, and piloted it in May.

What type of information do you gather?

The 20-question survey tries to measure the level of satisfaction crime victims have with the service they received in regard to their calls for help. We’ve purposely kept our questions closed-ended, so the data can be measured statistically. Some of the things we ask about include officer response time and whether the victim received complaint number and other contact information.

Who gathers the data?

During the pilot phase, volunteer community members worked for two evenings in an ad hoc phone bank at police headquarters. More recently, we had about 40 city police cadets survey the public. I’m teaching a research methods course in criminal justice this fall. Col. Skinner told me, “Bring your students, have them get involved,” so we’ll merge the survey with the course. TU students will come down to police headquarters to conduct surveys. Many in the course want to become Baltimore City police officers. This real world experience will offer some valuable insight on how victims respond to crime.

What happens to the data after it is gathered?

I will analyze the data based upon Col. Skinner’s objectives and send my results back to the police department. All the preliminary results have been quite positive, which has been both surprising and refreshing. One thing the BPD plans to do is apply the data toward officer training. Are officers acting professionally? Are they getting back to victims when they say they will? If data suggests this is not being done, or that victims need more information to get follow-up assistance, action can be taken accordingly.

Any privacy concerns?

Most city residents we’ve contacted have been receptive and willing to complete the survey. I think they’re very happy simply to have their voices heard. There’s been one notable exception so far: One burglary victim we contacted had just been released from prison and was awaiting trial for another crime. He said we should forget his name and phone number!

[back to main article index]