ABC News Waco/Koresh Poll, April 1993 (ICPSR 6184)
Version Date: Sep 17, 2007 View help for published
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ABC News
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06184.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
This special topic poll explores the standoff between the FBI and other authorities and the "Branch Davidian" cult of Waco, Texas, led by David Koresh. Issues covered include the FBI's handling of the standoff, the initial raid on the Branch Davidian compound by federal agents in February 1993 and the resulting shootout leading to the standoff, and the FBI's effort to end the standoff by knocking holes in the cult's compound and pumping tear gas into the house. Respondents were asked if they thought the FBI should have waited longer before taking action to end the standoff, whether the fire that destroyed the compound was set on purpose by the cult members, and whether the deaths of the cult members could have been avoided if the standoff had been handled differently by the authorities. Additional questions concerned the amount of blame Koresh, his followers, the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, United States Attorney General Janet Reno, and President Bill Clinton deserved for the incident, and the effect of the Waco incident on the respondent's confidence in Clinton's ability to handle a crisis. Background information on respondents includes political party, age, and sex.
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Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
A weight variable with two implied decimal places has been included and must be used in any analysis.
Sample View help for 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 at home at the time of the interview.
Universe View help for Universe
Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the 48 contiguous United States.
Data Source View help for Data Source
telephone interviews
Method of Data Collection View help for Method of Data Collection
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
1994-03-10
Version History View help for Version History
- ABC News. ABC NEWS WACO/KORESH POLL, APRIL 1993. Radnor, PA: Chilton Research Services [producer], 1993. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2007-09-17. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06184.v1
2007-09-17 SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files have been added to this data collection.
Notes
Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions.
- The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented.

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