The Project Safe Neighborhoods Household Survey (PSNHS): Part I: PSN — Alaska Program Evaluation Baseline Data

Abstract

This document reports on a March 2004 public survey of Anchorage residents about the Alaska Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) intitative and public safety concerns at the neighborhood level. A year and a half into Alaska's PSN initiative, Anchorage residents were more aware of the specific penalties under federal law for illegal possession of a firearm than the programmatic effects of local, state, and federal law enforcement officials to reduce the level of gun crime in the city. Relatively few respondents recognized either of the PSN slogans of the Hard Time for Gun Crime message disseminated by PSN. Anchorage residents do not perceive much disincentive for engaging in prohibited conduct with weapons, indicating that there is a low level of deterrence to prevent people from committing gun crimes, particularly illegal possession offenses. There appears to be little community concern about violent crimes (general and gun-related), youth misbehavior, or racial ethnic conflict at the neighborhood level; nevertheless, most respondents reported believing that gun crime was on the rise in Anchorage as a whole.