ABC News O.J. Simpson Jury Poll, February 1997 (ICPSR 2174)

Version Date: Apr 4, 2008

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Principal Investigator(s):
ABC News

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02174.v2

Version V2

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Summary

This special topic poll, fielded February 4, 1997, sought respondents' views on the O.J. Simpson civil trial verdict and the treatment of minorities in the criminal justice system. Respondents were asked for their opinions on the civil trial decision, which found Simpson responsible for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Those queried were asked to consider the possible reasons for the different verdicts in the criminal and civil trials including differing legal definitions of guilt, the number of jurors required for a guilty verdict, the testimony and evidence allowed, the testimony of Simpson, and the racial demographics of the jury. Respondents' were asked for their personal opinions on the guilt or innocence of Simpson, whether they believed in the presence of a police conspiracy, and whether Simpson received a fair trial. Demographic variables include education, age, race, and sex.

Citation

ABC News. ABC News O.J. Simpson Jury Poll, February 1997. [distributor], 2008-04-04. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02174.v2

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

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Time Period(s)

1997-02

Date of Collection

1997-02-04

Data Collection Notes

  1. (1) The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) Original reports using these data may be found via the ABC News Polling Unit Web site. (3) The meaning of the variable SELECTB is unknown and may be associated with the sampling method of selecting a respondent based on the adult living in the household who last had a birthday. (4) According to the data collection instrument, code 3 in the variable Q909 also includes respondents who answered that they had attended a technical college. (5) A value label for an unknown code was added in the RECODED_AGE variable. (6) The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.
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Sample

Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was home at the time of the interview.

Universe

Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

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Original Release Date

1998-08-18

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • ABC News. ABC NEWS O.J. SIMPSON JURY POLL, FEBRUARY 1997. ICPSR02174-v2. Radnor, PA: Chilton Research Services [producer], 1997. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2008-01-09. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02174.v2

2008-01-09 SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files, and SAS and Stata supplemental files have been added to this data collection. Respondent names were removed from the data file and the CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis. Question text has been added to the codebook, and the data collection instrument has been taken out of the codebook and made into its own file.

1998-08-18 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created online analysis version with question text.
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Weight

The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. This poll consists of "standard" national representative samples of the adult population with sample balancing of sex, race, age, and education.

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Notes