The Threats and Harassment Dataset (THD), BDI’s event-level dataset capturing hostility towards local public officials around the country, is now updated through July 2024. This release includes updates to THD methodology to better capture new and emerging trends. These coding improvements are outlined below and explained in further detail in the THD Codebook. Please download the latest version of the THD to ensure you are working with the most up-to-date dataset.
Methodology Updates
- ‘Issue at Stake’ Coding: This variable captures the type of issue that is reported to be motivating a threat or harassment event. Motivating issues change over time and new issues emerge based on evolving contexts. Previously, the ‘Issue at Stake’ categories captured in the data included ‘Education,’ ‘Elections,’ ‘Health, ‘Other,’ and ‘Unknown.’ As the ‘Other’ category increased in proportion, BDI researchers reviewed the data to identify emerging trends. Two large subsets were identified as consistently motivating issues and have now been added as set categories in the dataset: ‘Hyperlocal’ issues (e.g. specific local government votes, policies, and regulations), reflecting 22% of all events; and grievances related to ‘Personal Legal’ issues (e.g. sentencing, family court decisions), reflecting 14% of all events.
- In addition to these new categories, ‘Health’ issues are now subsumed within the ‘Other’ category (more below).
- ‘Health’ Coding: Threats and harassment motivated by health topics have declined in frequency since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, as a holdover from pilot data collection that spanned 2020 and 2021, the THD captured health-related details in the ‘Issue at Stake’ and ‘Target Affiliation’ variables. Especially as the THD does not currently include the peak years of the COVID-19 pandemic, such cases are quite limited in the dataset, and hence do not require distinct categorization. Cases motivated by health issues are now coded as ‘Other Issue at Stake’ (impacting 15 events) and ‘Health Official’ targets for ‘Target Affiliation’ are now coded as ‘Other Target Affiliation’ (impacting three events). Specific details about events targeting health officials or motivated by health issues are captured in the ‘Event Summary’ for applicable events.
- ‘Other or Unknown Death Threat’ Coding: Death threats make up approximately 36% of all events in the dataset and approximately 60% of threat events. Previously, the THD captured only one distinct category of death threats: death threats featuring firearms, coded as ‘Gun Violence.’ All other death threats (e.g. public execution, hanging, etc.), including those where the type of death threat was unknown, were coded as ‘Other or Unknown Death Threat.’ To allow for more detailed analysis, ‘Other’ and ‘Unknown’ death threats have now been separated into two unique categories.
- BDI researchers will continue to monitor all ‘Other’ categories in the dataset and make further updates to capture new patterns as they emerge.
The THD is part of BDI’s Understanding Threats and Harassment Against Local Officials (UTH) project, a mixed methods approach to systematically monitor the full scope of threats and harassment facing local officials across the United States, and is made possible by the UTH consortium. Current members of the consortium include the Anti-Defamation League, the Brennan Center for Justice, CivicPulse, the Prosecution Project, the National League of Cities, and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, among others. BDI regularly works to expand data contributions to address gaps in coverage. If you believe your organization has relevant data to contribute, please reach out to [email protected].
The project is supported by the Brennan Center for Justice, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and generous flexible support from BDI’s core funders, following essential start-up funds from the Anti-Defamation League and Stand Together Trust.