The Prosecution Project (tPP) is a long-term, Open-Source Intelligence research platform tracking and providing an analysis of felony criminal cases involving illegal political violence occurring in the United States since 1990.
Through identification, analysis, and assessment of thousands of cases, tPP seeks to identify correlations between who a defendant is, how they are charged and prosecuted, and other related factors, such as political ideology, religion, and the crime’s motive, means, target, and impact. The project explores defendant demographics, prosecutorial strategy and outcome, juridical rhetoric, and relevant laws dealing with hate crimes, civil rights violations, designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and material support, as well as assigned terrorism enhancements and the use of specialized motive-centric statutes.
Every case included in the tPP dataset is validated through a decision tree. The dataset aims to be inclusive of all cases involving felony crimes with social-political motivation, as stated by the perpetrator, or labeled by official state bodies such as, but not limited to, law enforcement or federal government.
Each case is coded for 50 variables, associated with a set of primary sources, and triangulated via several secondary sources by an independent coding team. After the first round of dual coding, the case is checked by a senior member of the project team, and finally, validated by one of the tPP Auditors. The data generated is suitable for a patterned statistical analysis and the development of complex models to understand patterns, trends, and outliers. To learn more about tPP’s process and the information included in the dataset, please visit our “tPP Includes…” page.
tPP records a comprehensive account of modern political violence prosecutions through confirmed, verified, triangulated, and transparently-documented cases. The goal of tPP is to generate meaningful findings for scholars and policy makers, to create and publish a previously nonexistent database for public use, and to allow students to engage in research and acquire skills that are required for carrying out a long-term team project. The project is led by an Executive Director and Deputy Director, coordinated by a Leadership Team and its Directors, and informed by a National Advisory Board of noted scholars and researchers.
In the future, tPP aims to make all of its data available online, for free in an accessible format. We are currently exploring how to best design this system, but if you would like to inquire about accessing our data or reports, please get in touch.
Want to learn more about tPP? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions here!