DATASETS

The Domestic Terrorist Victims dataset (Version 1)

We have generated the first dataset that includes all domestic killings carried out by clandestine terrorist groups within Western Europe from 1965 onwards. We call it the DTV (Domestic Terrorist Victims) dataset. We have collected detailed evidence on almost 5,000 victims of domestic terrorism all over Western Europe. We have used several first-hand sources (for instance, local newspapers, monographs, and official list of victims) to compile a comprehensive dataset on domestic terrorism in Western Europe that includes many more killings than those of existing datasets: we have collected information on killings carried out by left-wing, right-wing, neo-nazi, pro-secessionist and vigilante-type of terrorist groups.

The first release of the DTV dataset covers all killings carried out by terrorist groups in Western Europe from 1965 to 2005. This version supplies full descriptive information about 4,955 killings. Variables such as the date of the attack, the location, the name of the victim, her status, the group responsible, the method used and other relevant descriptive variables are included. We also include two variables to analyze target selection: selectivity and strategy.

To introduce the data to the academic community we wrote "The Quantity and Quality of Terrorism: the DTV dataset", which has been published in the Journal of Peace Research 46 (1), January 2011. Users should cite this article as their reference for the data. The accompanying codebook provides detailed information on each of the variables contained within the dataset, with coding conventions, examples and the sources used to generate the data.

The Victims of ETA dataset

In addition to creating the DTV dataset, we want to complement this work in two directions. On the one hand, we plan to broaden the dataset with instances of domestic terrorism within affluent non-European countries (for instance, domestic terrorism in the U.S. or Japan). On the other hand, we want to upload country-based datasets on particular terrorist organizations that include more fine-grained information about their killings. For instance, we have released "the Victims of ETA" dataset, which covers all killings carried out by ETA, its splinters and other Basque terrorist organizations from 1960 onwards. In addition to supplying descriptive information, we have coded every victim from our new scheme of target selection. The codebook explains how variables are defined and operationalized. “The Victims of ETA" dataset should be useful not only for those interested in ETA terrorism, but also for those analyzing patterns of target selection in deadly nationalist conflicts.

Replication Data: Revolutionary Terrorism in the Developed World, 1970-2000

These are the replication files, codebooks and datasets corresponding to the following article:

Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, “Revolutionary Dreams and Terrorist Violence in the Developed World: Explaining Country Variation”, Journal of Peace Research, 46 (5) 2009: 687-706.