Torture allegations as events data

Introducing the Ill-Treatment and Torture (ITT) specific allegation data

Bibliographic Data

ID3916396
AuthorsCourtenay R Conrad (0000-0002-7963-3083, University of California, Merced, corresponding author), Jillienne Haglund (0000-0001-9718-5328, Florida State University), Will H Moore (0000-0002-4572-3945, Florida State University)
Year2014
Volume51
Issue3
Pages429-438
Publication date2014-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343314524427
OpenAlexW2137122927
LanguageEN
Citations received28
References cited22

The Ill-Treatment and Torture (ITT) Data Collection Project uses content analysis to measure a number of variables on more than 15,000 public allegations of government ill-treatment and torture made by Amnesty International (AI) from 1995 to 2005. The ITT specific allegation (SA) event data use the torture allegation as the unit of observation, thus permitting users to manipulate them for a wide variety of purposes. In this article, we introduce the ITT SA data. We first describe the key variables in the SA data and report a number of bivariate descriptive statistics to illustrate some of the research questions that might be usefully investigated with the data. We then discuss how we believe the ITT SA data can be used to study not only AI's naming and shaming behavior, but also states' (lack of) compliance with the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT). We conclude with an empirical analysis using the SA data that investigates the effect of domestic political institutions on formal complaints, investigations, and adjudication of torture allegations. We show that legislative checks are positively associated with complaints, investigations, and trials; elections and freedom of speech are positively associated with investigations and trials; and powerful judiciaries are associated only with investigations

Allegation · Amnesty · Computer security · Criminology · Descriptive statistics · Human rights · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Politics · Statistics · Torture · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Computer Science · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Mathematics · Medicine · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology