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Description & Citation--Study No. 8451

Bibliographic Description

ICPSR Study No.:8451
 
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08451
 
Title:Executions in the United States, 1608-2002: The ESPY File
 
Principal Investigator(s):M. Watt Espy, Headland, Alabama
 
  John Ortiz Smykla, University of South Alabama. Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice
 
Funding Agency:National Science Foundation
 
Grant Number:SES 84-09725
 
Bibliographic Citation:Espy, M. Watt, and John Ortiz Smykla. EXECUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1608-2002: THE ESPY FILE [Computer file]. 4th ICPSR ed. Compiled by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, University of Alabama. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 2004. doi:10.3886/ICPSR08451
 

Scope of Study

Summary:This collection furnishes data on executions performed under civil authority in the United States between 1608 and 2002. The dataset describes each individual executed and the circumstances surrounding the crime for which the person was convicted. Variables include age, race, name, sex, and occupation of the offender, place, jurisdiction, date, and method of execution, and the crime for which the offender was executed. Also recorded are data on whether the only evidence for the execution was official records indicating that an individual (executioner or slave owner) was compensated for an execution.
 
Subject Term(s):capital punishment, crime, executions, historical data, criminal justice system, offenders, offenses
 
Geographic Coverage:United States
 
Time Period:1608 - 2002
 
Date(s) of Collection:1970 - 2002
 
Universe:Executions that occurred under civil authority in the United States or within territory that later became the United States.
 
Data Type:aggregate data
 
Data Collection Notes:The codebook is provided by ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.
 

Methodology

Data Source:state Department of Corrections records, newspapers, county histories, proceedings of state and local courts, holdings of historical societies, and other listings of executions
 

Access and Availability

Note:A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.
 
Original ICPSR Release:1988-01-06
 
Version History:The last update of this study occurred on 2005-11-04.
 
  2005-11-04 - On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.
 
  2004-02-27 - Data from the years 1992 through 2002 have been added to the data file. The SPSS and SAS data definition statements have been updated accordingly and Part 2 of this study, old SAS data definition statements will be removed, leaving all files in only one part. The ASCII codebook has also been updated and converted to a PDF file.
 
Dataset(s):
  • DS1: Executions in the United States, 1608-2002: The ESPY File
 

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