Capital Punishment in the United States, 1973-2012 (ICPSR 36166)
Version Date: Dec 17, 2020 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
United States. Bureau of Justice Statistics
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36166.v2
Version V2 (see more versions)
Summary View help for Summary
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1973-2012 provides annual data on prisoners under a sentence of death, as well as those who had their sentences commuted or vacated and prisoners who were executed. This study examines basic sociodemographic classifications including age, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status at time of imprisonment, level of education, and state and region of incarceration. Criminal history information includes prior felony convictions and prior convictions for criminal homicide and the legal status at the time of the capital offense. Additional information is provided on those inmates removed from death row by yearend 2012. The dataset consists of one part which contains 9,058 cases. The file provides information on inmates whose death sentences were removed in addition to information on those inmates who were executed. The file also gives information about inmates who received a second death sentence by yearend 2012 as well as inmates who were already on death row.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
state
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these BJS-sponsored data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete an application through the Standard Application Process (SAP) Portal. The application requires users to provide information about their research team and project, explain why the requested data are essential to the research, and describe how the data will be used. Applicants are also required to complete and submit a NACJD Restricted Data Use Agreement and a BJS Privacy Certificate, and provide IRB review documentation.
Restricted Data Use Agreements available on the NACJD website are provided for reference only. Apply for access to BJS restricted-use data through the SAP Portal, where you will complete the application and submit all required documentation. If the application is approved, these data may be accessed from a requester secure site via ICPSR's secure download procedures.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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The inmate identification numbers were assigned by the Bureau of the Census and have no purpose outside this data collection.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
All inmates on death row since 1973 in the United States.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
official prison records
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2015-06-10
Version History View help for Version History
2020-12-17 The codebook was updated with a discrepancy note for variables V9 and V10.
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:
- United States. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Capital Punishment in the United States, 1973-2012. ICPSR36166-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-12-17. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36166.v2
2015-06-10 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:
- Standardized missing values.
- Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.