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Civil unrest categories

Civil unrest event types, with the category ID to use when filtering by category in the API.

25 event types across 3 groupings.

Category IDs come from the platform itself

IDs on this page are read from the live category list, not transcribed.

Unrest events are sourced differently from crime. Law enforcement agencies are rarely the reporting mechanism for a protest or an armed clash — media, government, and NGO sources are. See data source categories.

Severity weighting

Categories are not weighted equally. Severity is weighted heavily, so a location with a few serious violent incidents scores above one with a high volume of minor offenses — a homicide moves a score far more than a case of vandalism. The exact per-category weighting is proprietary.

Demonstrations

Protest and demonstration activity. The distinction between a peaceful protest, one met with intervention, and a violent demonstration is drawn explicitly rather than collapsed into one category.

Parent category ID 55.

ID Event type
46 Excessive force against protesters
45 Mob violence
43 Peaceful protest
44 Protest with intervention
54 Violent demonstration

Non-Violent Unrest Events

Strategic and organizational developments that signal changing conditions without direct violence. Useful as leading indicators.

Parent category ID 56.

ID Event type
33 Agreement
34 Arrests
31 Change to group/activity
39 Disrupted weapons use
32 Headquarters or base established
41 Looting/property destruction
35 Non-violent transfer of territory
42 Other_unrest

Political Violence

Organized violence involving armed actors — the most severe events in the taxonomy.

Parent category ID 60.

ID Event type
51 Abduction/forced disappearance
30 Air/drone strike
38 Armed clash
36 Attack
47 Chemical weapon
52 Government regains territory
37 Grenade
49 Non-state actor overtakes territory
53 Remote explosive/landmine/IED
48 Sexual violence
40 Shelling/artillery/missile attack
50 Suicide bomb