Political Instability Task Force Worldwide Atrocities Dataset
For the past few years the KEDS project has been collecting the data set described below for the U.S. government-sponsored Political Instability Task Force. While this work, like all of our efforts, has been unclassified, there were some contractual ambiguities as to the conditions under which we could release the data. These have been resolved, and the data are now available. We expect to update the data file posted on this site every three months or so.
The current version covers January 1995 to July 2007 and includes 4,885 events. These data were coded using conventional human coding rather than automated methods, although we do employ a couple of customized filter programs to reduce the number of stories we need to look through. Data are a zipped MS-Excel file; compressed file size is about 2 Mb; it decompresses to about 6.5 Mb.
The following narrative describing the data is included at the request of the sponsor:
“The Political Instability Task Force (PITF) Worldwide Atrocities Dataset is a global dataset that describes, in quantitative terms, the deliberate killing of non-combatant civilians in the context of a wider political conflict. This data collection project, which is still ongoing, is intended to advance efforts to understand and anticipate atrocities, i.e., the deliberate use of lethal violence against non-combatant civilians by actors engaged in a wider political or military conflict. The practical objective of this project is to create a dataset representing a reasonably systematic sample of atrocities occurring worldwide in recent decades in order to: (1) enable the development of statistical models that might be used to identify countries vulnerable to the occurrence of atrocities or, if atrocities are already occurring, to an escalation in their rate or intensity; and (2) create a descriptive record that might be used by researchers with an interest in particular countries or conflicts. The effective date of data in this dataset is 1 January 1995 to the present date. Data are updated monthly.
The research underlying the development of this dataset has been conducted under
the auspices of the Political Instability Task Force, a body of distinguished scholars,
supported by methodologists from Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC),
that forecasts and explains state collapse and other significant internal political
events in countries worldwide for senior policymakers in the U.S. Government.
The research was conducted as part of an unclassified program funded by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Directorate of Intelligence through a contract
with SAIC. The data collected and published on this Web site, and all statements of
fact, opinion, or analysis expressed in the accompanying code book that guided the data
collection effort, are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the official
positions of the CIA or any other U.S. Government agency. Nothing in the contents
should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government authentication or
information or CIA endorsement of the authors' views.”
Download
Political Instability Task Force Worldwide Atrocities Dataset coding manual (.pdf)
Download Political Instability Task Force Worldwide Atrocities Dataset data (.zip)
Google Earth display of data
The .kml file provided below will create a Google Earth display of the data. The data itself is stored on a server at the University of Kansas and you will need to be connected to the internet to use this; you will also need the Google Earth software installed on your machine.
Download Google Earth
.kml file for displaying data set (.kml)
Download perl program and ancillary
files for converting a tab-delimited version of data set into .kml records (.zip)
LAST UPDATED: 15 NOVEMBER 2007