START Terrorism Data
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The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world since 1970 (currently updated through 2007). Unlike many other event databases, the GTD includes systematic data on international as well as domestic terrorist incidents that have occurred during this time period and now includes over 80,000 cases. For each GTD incident, information is available on the date and location of the incident, the weapons used and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and -- when identifiable -- the identity of the perpetrator.[ref 1]
The Global Terrorism Database contains information on over 80,000 terrorist attacks, including information on more than 27,000 bombings, 12, 000 assassinations, and 2,900 kidnappings since 1970. The dataset includes information on at least 45 variables for each case, with more recent incidents including information on more than 120 variables. Over 3,500,000 news articles and 25,000 news sources were reviewed to collect incident data from 1998 to 2007 alone. This effort is supervised by an advisory panel of 12 terrorism research experts and is currently the most comprehensive unclassified data base on terrorist events in the world.[ref 2]
Data Quality
In the absence of a universally accepted definition of terrorism, GTD uses various coded criteria to cover a broad range of definitions of terrorism through a combination of inclusiveness and filtering. The goal is to have a data set that is useful to as many interested users as possible. Although the GTD does include failed attacks, it does not include foiled or failed plots, the distinction being that the attack must actually be attempted to qualify for inclusion in the database. Likewise, the GTD does include attacks in which violence is threatened as a means of coercion, but does not include threats to attack where no action is taken. While the GTD inclusion criteria offer a comprehensive definition of terrorism,users are encouraged to take advantage of the GTD's flexibility to restrict the data according to their definitional preferences. This includes filtering search results based on whether the coder noted some uncertainty whether an incident meets all of the criteria for inclusion ("Doubt Terrorism Proper," available for post-1997 cases only). Also, users can filter search results based on which of the following three criteria are met (available for all cases):
- Criterion I: The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal.
- Criterion II: There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims.
- Criterion III: The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities.
While efforts have been made to assure the continuity of the data from 1970 to the present, users should keep in mind that the data collection was done as events occurred up to 1997, retrospectively between 1998 and 2007, and again concurrently with the events after 2008. This distinction is important because some media sources have since become unavailable, hampering efforts to collect a complete census of terrorist attacks between 1998 and 2007. Thus, users should note that differences in levels of attacks before and after 1997 are at least partially explained by differences in data collection; and researchers should adjust for these differences when modeling the data.[ref 3]
References
- ↑ "Overview of the GTD" Global Terrorism Database, http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/about/.
- ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions" Global Terrorism Database, http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/faq/.
- ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions" Global Terrorism Database, http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/faq/.
