Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Corrections Statistics Capital punishment
Corrections Statistics Capital punishment
· Jails
· Prisons
· Probation & parole
Corrections facts at a glance
Capital Punishment Statistics
Summary findings BJS publications Selected statistics
Summary findings
Executions
In 2007, 42 inmates were executed, 11 fewer than in 2006.
Executions, 1930-2007
In 2007, 42 persons in 10 states were executed -- 26 in Texas; 3 each in Alabama and Oklahoma; 2 each in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee; and 1 each in South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Of persons executed in 2007:
-- 28 were white
-- 14 were black
All 42 inmates executed in 2007 were men.
Lethal injection was used in 41 executions in 2007; 1 execution was by electrocution.
Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.
Prisoners under sentence of death
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.
Prisoners on death row, 1953-2007
At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.
Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2007
Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:
-- 1,804 were white
-- 1,345 were black
-- 26 were American Indian
-- 35 were Asian
-- 10 were of unknown race.
Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.
The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
At yearend 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS Publications
This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.
Capital Punishment, Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death at yearend and of persons executed. This annual BJS report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.
In electronic format only:
Capital Punishment - Statistical Tables.
2007, 12/08. NCJ 224528
2006, 12/07. NCJ 220219
In printed and electronic formats:
Capital Punishment, 2005, 12/06. NCJ 215083
Capital Punishment, 2004, 11/05. NCJ 211349
Capital Punishment, 2003, 11/04. NCJ 206627
Capital Punishment, 2002, 11/03. NCJ 201848
Capital Punishment, 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020
Capital Punishment, 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598
Capital Punishment, 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795
Capital Punishment, 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment, 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment, 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment, 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment, 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment, 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, 12/04. Reports the rates and characteristics of violent crimes experienced by American Indians and summarizes data on American Indians in the criminal justice system. NCJ 203097
Correctional Populations in the United States, Presents data on the number of persons in the United States who were under some form of correctional supervision.
In electronic formats only:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 - Statistical tables, 09/02. NCJ 192929
In print and electronic formats:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Includes the Survey of State and Federal inmates.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes state-by-state data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675
Previous editions (non-electronic)
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected statistics
Executions, 1930-2007
Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2006
Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2006
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, federal, state-by-state, and region, 1977-2007 Spreadsheet (22K)
Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. 1998 data are currently available, 9/02
BJS home page Top of this page
Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Send comments to askbjs@usdoj.gov
OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Legal Policies and Disclaimers
Page last revised on December 4, 2008
BJS home page
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections Statistics -
> Capital punishment
· Jails
· Prisons
· Probation & parole
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections facts at a glance
Capital Punishment Statistics
Summary findings BJS publications Selected statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary findings
Executions
In 2007, 42 inmates were executed, 11 fewer than in 2006.
Executions, 1930-2007
In 2007, 42 persons in 10 states were executed -- 26 in Texas; 3 each in Alabama and Oklahoma; 2 each in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee; and 1 each in South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Of persons executed in 2007:
-- 28 were white
-- 14 were black
All 42 inmates executed in 2007 were men.
Lethal injection was used in 41 executions in 2007; 1 execution was by electrocution.
Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.
Prisoners under sentence of death
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.
Prisoners on death row, 1953-2007
At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.
Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2007
Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:
-- 1,804 were white
-- 1,345 were black
-- 26 were American Indian
-- 35 were Asian
-- 10 were of unknown race.
Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.
The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
At yearend 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS Publications
This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.
Capital Punishment, Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death at yearend and of persons executed. This annual BJS report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.
In electronic format only:
Capital Punishment - Statistical Tables.
2007, 12/08. NCJ 224528
2006, 12/07. NCJ 220219
In printed and electronic formats:
Capital Punishment, 2005, 12/06. NCJ 215083
Capital Punishment, 2004, 11/05. NCJ 211349
Capital Punishment, 2003, 11/04. NCJ 206627
Capital Punishment, 2002, 11/03. NCJ 201848
Capital Punishment, 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020
Capital Punishment, 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598
Capital Punishment, 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795
Capital Punishment, 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment, 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment, 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment, 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment, 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment, 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, 12/04. Reports the rates and characteristics of violent crimes experienced by American Indians and summarizes data on American Indians in the criminal justice system. NCJ 203097
Correctional Populations in the United States, Presents data on the number of persons in the United States who were under some form of correctional supervision.
In electronic formats only:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 - Statistical tables, 09/02. NCJ 192929
In print and electronic formats:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Includes the Survey of State and Federal inmates.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes state-by-state data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675
Previous editions (non-electronic)
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected statistics
Executions, 1930-2007
Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2006
Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2006
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, federal, state-by-state, and region, 1977-2007 Spreadsheet (22K)
Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. 1998 data are currently available, 9/02
BJS home page Top of this page
Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Send comments to askbjs@usdoj.gov
OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Legal Policies and Disclaimers
Page last revised on December 4, 2008
Corrections Statistics Capital punishment
· Jails
· Prisons
· Probation & parole
Corrections facts at a glance
Capital Punishment Statistics
Summary findings BJS publications Selected statistics
Summary findings
Executions
In 2007, 42 inmates were executed, 11 fewer than in 2006.
Executions, 1930-2007
In 2007, 42 persons in 10 states were executed -- 26 in Texas; 3 each in Alabama and Oklahoma; 2 each in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee; and 1 each in South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Of persons executed in 2007:
-- 28 were white
-- 14 were black
All 42 inmates executed in 2007 were men.
Lethal injection was used in 41 executions in 2007; 1 execution was by electrocution.
Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.
Prisoners under sentence of death
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.
Prisoners on death row, 1953-2007
At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.
Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2007
Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:
-- 1,804 were white
-- 1,345 were black
-- 26 were American Indian
-- 35 were Asian
-- 10 were of unknown race.
Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.
The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
At yearend 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS Publications
This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.
Capital Punishment, Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death at yearend and of persons executed. This annual BJS report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.
In electronic format only:
Capital Punishment - Statistical Tables.
2007, 12/08. NCJ 224528
2006, 12/07. NCJ 220219
In printed and electronic formats:
Capital Punishment, 2005, 12/06. NCJ 215083
Capital Punishment, 2004, 11/05. NCJ 211349
Capital Punishment, 2003, 11/04. NCJ 206627
Capital Punishment, 2002, 11/03. NCJ 201848
Capital Punishment, 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020
Capital Punishment, 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598
Capital Punishment, 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795
Capital Punishment, 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment, 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment, 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment, 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment, 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment, 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, 12/04. Reports the rates and characteristics of violent crimes experienced by American Indians and summarizes data on American Indians in the criminal justice system. NCJ 203097
Correctional Populations in the United States, Presents data on the number of persons in the United States who were under some form of correctional supervision.
In electronic formats only:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 - Statistical tables, 09/02. NCJ 192929
In print and electronic formats:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Includes the Survey of State and Federal inmates.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes state-by-state data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675
Previous editions (non-electronic)
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected statistics
Executions, 1930-2007
Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2006
Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2006
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, federal, state-by-state, and region, 1977-2007 Spreadsheet (22K)
Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. 1998 data are currently available, 9/02
BJS home page Top of this page
Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Send comments to askbjs@usdoj.gov
OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Legal Policies and Disclaimers
Page last revised on December 4, 2008
BJS home page
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections Statistics -
> Capital punishment
· Jails
· Prisons
· Probation & parole
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections facts at a glance
Capital Punishment Statistics
Summary findings BJS publications Selected statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary findings
Executions
In 2007, 42 inmates were executed, 11 fewer than in 2006.
Executions, 1930-2007
In 2007, 42 persons in 10 states were executed -- 26 in Texas; 3 each in Alabama and Oklahoma; 2 each in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee; and 1 each in South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Of persons executed in 2007:
-- 28 were white
-- 14 were black
All 42 inmates executed in 2007 were men.
Lethal injection was used in 41 executions in 2007; 1 execution was by electrocution.
Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.
Prisoners under sentence of death
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.
Prisoners on death row, 1953-2007
At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.
Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2007
Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:
-- 1,804 were white
-- 1,345 were black
-- 26 were American Indian
-- 35 were Asian
-- 10 were of unknown race.
Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.
The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
At yearend 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS Publications
This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.
Capital Punishment, Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death at yearend and of persons executed. This annual BJS report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.
In electronic format only:
Capital Punishment - Statistical Tables.
2007, 12/08. NCJ 224528
2006, 12/07. NCJ 220219
In printed and electronic formats:
Capital Punishment, 2005, 12/06. NCJ 215083
Capital Punishment, 2004, 11/05. NCJ 211349
Capital Punishment, 2003, 11/04. NCJ 206627
Capital Punishment, 2002, 11/03. NCJ 201848
Capital Punishment, 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020
Capital Punishment, 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598
Capital Punishment, 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795
Capital Punishment, 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment, 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment, 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment, 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment, 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment, 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, 12/04. Reports the rates and characteristics of violent crimes experienced by American Indians and summarizes data on American Indians in the criminal justice system. NCJ 203097
Correctional Populations in the United States, Presents data on the number of persons in the United States who were under some form of correctional supervision.
In electronic formats only:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 - Statistical tables, 09/02. NCJ 192929
In print and electronic formats:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Includes the Survey of State and Federal inmates.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes state-by-state data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675
Previous editions (non-electronic)
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected statistics
Executions, 1930-2007
Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2006
Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2006
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, federal, state-by-state, and region, 1977-2007 Spreadsheet (22K)
Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. 1998 data are currently available, 9/02
BJS home page Top of this page
Bureau of Justice Statistics
s/
Send comments to askbjs@usdoj.gov
OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Legal Policies and Disclaimers
Page last revised on December 4, 2008
· Jails
· Prisons
· Probation & parole
Corrections facts at a glance
Capital Punishment Statistics
Summary findings BJS publications Selected statistics
Summary findings
Executions
In 2007, 42 inmates were executed, 11 fewer than in 2006.
Executions, 1930-2007
In 2007, 42 persons in 10 states were executed -- 26 in Texas; 3 each in Alabama and Oklahoma; 2 each in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee; and 1 each in South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Of persons executed in 2007:
-- 28 were white
-- 14 were black
All 42 inmates executed in 2007 were men.
Lethal injection was used in 41 executions in 2007; 1 execution was by electrocution.
Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.
Prisoners under sentence of death
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.
Prisoners on death row, 1953-2007
At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.
Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2007
Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:
-- 1,804 were white
-- 1,345 were black
-- 26 were American Indian
-- 35 were Asian
-- 10 were of unknown race.
Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.
The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
At yearend 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS Publications
This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.
Capital Punishment, Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death at yearend and of persons executed. This annual BJS report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.
In electronic format only:
Capital Punishment - Statistical Tables.
2007, 12/08. NCJ 224528
2006, 12/07. NCJ 220219
In printed and electronic formats:
Capital Punishment, 2005, 12/06. NCJ 215083
Capital Punishment, 2004, 11/05. NCJ 211349
Capital Punishment, 2003, 11/04. NCJ 206627
Capital Punishment, 2002, 11/03. NCJ 201848
Capital Punishment, 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020
Capital Punishment, 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598
Capital Punishment, 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795
Capital Punishment, 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment, 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment, 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment, 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment, 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment, 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, 12/04. Reports the rates and characteristics of violent crimes experienced by American Indians and summarizes data on American Indians in the criminal justice system. NCJ 203097
Correctional Populations in the United States, Presents data on the number of persons in the United States who were under some form of correctional supervision.
In electronic formats only:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 - Statistical tables, 09/02. NCJ 192929
In print and electronic formats:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Includes the Survey of State and Federal inmates.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes state-by-state data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675
Previous editions (non-electronic)
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected statistics
Executions, 1930-2007
Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2006
Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2006
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, federal, state-by-state, and region, 1977-2007 Spreadsheet (22K)
Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. 1998 data are currently available, 9/02
BJS home page Top of this page
Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Send comments to askbjs@usdoj.gov
OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Legal Policies and Disclaimers
Page last revised on December 4, 2008
BJS home page
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections Statistics -
> Capital punishment
· Jails
· Prisons
· Probation & parole
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections facts at a glance
Capital Punishment Statistics
Summary findings BJS publications Selected statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary findings
Executions
In 2007, 42 inmates were executed, 11 fewer than in 2006.
Executions, 1930-2007
In 2007, 42 persons in 10 states were executed -- 26 in Texas; 3 each in Alabama and Oklahoma; 2 each in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee; and 1 each in South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Of persons executed in 2007:
-- 28 were white
-- 14 were black
All 42 inmates executed in 2007 were men.
Lethal injection was used in 41 executions in 2007; 1 execution was by electrocution.
Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.
Prisoners under sentence of death
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.
Prisoners on death row, 1953-2007
At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.
Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2007
Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:
-- 1,804 were white
-- 1,345 were black
-- 26 were American Indian
-- 35 were Asian
-- 10 were of unknown race.
Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.
The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
At yearend 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS Publications
This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.
Capital Punishment, Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death at yearend and of persons executed. This annual BJS report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.
In electronic format only:
Capital Punishment - Statistical Tables.
2007, 12/08. NCJ 224528
2006, 12/07. NCJ 220219
In printed and electronic formats:
Capital Punishment, 2005, 12/06. NCJ 215083
Capital Punishment, 2004, 11/05. NCJ 211349
Capital Punishment, 2003, 11/04. NCJ 206627
Capital Punishment, 2002, 11/03. NCJ 201848
Capital Punishment, 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020
Capital Punishment, 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598
Capital Punishment, 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795
Capital Punishment, 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment, 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment, 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment, 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment, 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment, 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, 12/04. Reports the rates and characteristics of violent crimes experienced by American Indians and summarizes data on American Indians in the criminal justice system. NCJ 203097
Correctional Populations in the United States, Presents data on the number of persons in the United States who were under some form of correctional supervision.
In electronic formats only:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 - Statistical tables, 09/02. NCJ 192929
In print and electronic formats:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Includes the Survey of State and Federal inmates.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes state-by-state data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675
Previous editions (non-electronic)
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected statistics
Executions, 1930-2007
Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2006
Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2006
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, federal, state-by-state, and region, 1977-2007 Spreadsheet (22K)
Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. 1998 data are currently available, 9/02
BJS home page Top of this page
Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Send comments to askbjs@usdoj.gov
OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Legal Policies and Disclaimers
Page last revised on December 4, 2008
Corrections Statistics Capital punishment
· Jails
· Prisons
· Probation & parole
Corrections facts at a glance
Capital Punishment Statistics
Summary findings BJS publications Selected statistics
Summary findings
Executions
In 2007, 42 inmates were executed, 11 fewer than in 2006.
Executions, 1930-2007
In 2007, 42 persons in 10 states were executed -- 26 in Texas; 3 each in Alabama and Oklahoma; 2 each in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee; and 1 each in South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Of persons executed in 2007:
-- 28 were white
-- 14 were black
All 42 inmates executed in 2007 were men.
Lethal injection was used in 41 executions in 2007; 1 execution was by electrocution.
Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.
Prisoners under sentence of death
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.
Prisoners on death row, 1953-2007
At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.
Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2007
Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:
-- 1,804 were white
-- 1,345 were black
-- 26 were American Indian
-- 35 were Asian
-- 10 were of unknown race.
Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.
The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
At yearend 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS Publications
This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.
Capital Punishment, Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death at yearend and of persons executed. This annual BJS report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.
In electronic format only:
Capital Punishment - Statistical Tables.
2007, 12/08. NCJ 224528
2006, 12/07. NCJ 220219
In printed and electronic formats:
Capital Punishment, 2005, 12/06. NCJ 215083
Capital Punishment, 2004, 11/05. NCJ 211349
Capital Punishment, 2003, 11/04. NCJ 206627
Capital Punishment, 2002, 11/03. NCJ 201848
Capital Punishment, 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020
Capital Punishment, 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598
Capital Punishment, 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795
Capital Punishment, 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment, 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment, 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment, 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment, 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment, 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, 12/04. Reports the rates and characteristics of violent crimes experienced by American Indians and summarizes data on American Indians in the criminal justice system. NCJ 203097
Correctional Populations in the United States, Presents data on the number of persons in the United States who were under some form of correctional supervision.
In electronic formats only:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 - Statistical tables, 09/02. NCJ 192929
In print and electronic formats:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Includes the Survey of State and Federal inmates.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes state-by-state data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675
Previous editions (non-electronic)
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected statistics
Executions, 1930-2007
Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2006
Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2006
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, federal, state-by-state, and region, 1977-2007 Spreadsheet (22K)
Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. 1998 data are currently available, 9/02
BJS home page Top of this page
Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Send comments to askbjs@usdoj.gov
OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Legal Policies and Disclaimers
Page last revised on December 4, 2008
BJS home page
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections Statistics -
> Capital punishment
· Jails
· Prisons
· Probation & parole
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections facts at a glance
Capital Punishment Statistics
Summary findings BJS publications Selected statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary findings
Executions
In 2007, 42 inmates were executed, 11 fewer than in 2006.
Executions, 1930-2007
In 2007, 42 persons in 10 states were executed -- 26 in Texas; 3 each in Alabama and Oklahoma; 2 each in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee; and 1 each in South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Of persons executed in 2007:
-- 28 were white
-- 14 were black
All 42 inmates executed in 2007 were men.
Lethal injection was used in 41 executions in 2007; 1 execution was by electrocution.
Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.
Prisoners under sentence of death
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.
Prisoners on death row, 1953-2007
At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.
Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2007
Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:
-- 1,804 were white
-- 1,345 were black
-- 26 were American Indian
-- 35 were Asian
-- 10 were of unknown race.
Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.
The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
At yearend 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS Publications
This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.
Capital Punishment, Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death at yearend and of persons executed. This annual BJS report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.
In electronic format only:
Capital Punishment - Statistical Tables.
2007, 12/08. NCJ 224528
2006, 12/07. NCJ 220219
In printed and electronic formats:
Capital Punishment, 2005, 12/06. NCJ 215083
Capital Punishment, 2004, 11/05. NCJ 211349
Capital Punishment, 2003, 11/04. NCJ 206627
Capital Punishment, 2002, 11/03. NCJ 201848
Capital Punishment, 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020
Capital Punishment, 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598
Capital Punishment, 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795
Capital Punishment, 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment, 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment, 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment, 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment, 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment, 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, 12/04. Reports the rates and characteristics of violent crimes experienced by American Indians and summarizes data on American Indians in the criminal justice system. NCJ 203097
Correctional Populations in the United States, Presents data on the number of persons in the United States who were under some form of correctional supervision.
In electronic formats only:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1998 - Statistical tables, 09/02. NCJ 192929
In print and electronic formats:
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Includes the Survey of State and Federal inmates.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes state-by-state data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675
Previous editions (non-electronic)
To the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected statistics
Executions, 1930-2007
Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2006
Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2006
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, federal, state-by-state, and region, 1977-2007 Spreadsheet (22K)
Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. 1998 data are currently available, 9/02
BJS home page Top of this page
Bureau of Justice Statistics
s/
Send comments to askbjs@usdoj.gov
OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Legal Policies and Disclaimers
Page last revised on December 4, 2008
Human beings are born with numbers on the brain | Easy as 1, 2, 3 | The Economist
People come into the world ready to count its wonders
Illustration by Jon Berkley
THE baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert. Twenty centimetres from her face researchers have placed a white cardwith two black spots on it. She stares at it intently. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced.As the cards alternate, her gaze starts to wander—until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns: she looks at it for twice as longas she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?
Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots preceding two, shows the same revival of interest when the numberof spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of household objects instead of dots (a comb,a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of items had an effect separate from changing the items themselves. Could it be the pattern that two thingsmake, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to rectangles moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three,or vice versa. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots perked up more when they then heard three drumbeats thanwhen they heard just two; likewise when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.
“One great blooming, buzzing confusion” was how William James, a 19th-century psychologist, described the way he thought the world looked to a newborn baby.But these experiments, and many others like them over the past few decades, have convinced researchers that, on the contrary, babies are born with manyways of making sense of what they see and hear. The trick is to use their love of novelty to work out what is happening inside their brains: when shownthe same things repeatedly, babies’ eyes wander; when the scene changes, their gaze returns. That makes visible what to them constitutes a change in theworld around them worthy of notice.
Dot and carry one
One of those ways of understanding the world is by number. People are born with an innate sense of how many items there are in small collections. Experimentsin which older children and adults are shown randomly arranged dots and asked to say quickly how many there are show this sense is retained throughoutlife. Up to three or four items, and the number is immediately visible without counting. Within a limited range, humans are born arithmeticians, too. Whenbabies a few months old were shown dolls placed and removed from behind a screen they had correct expectations of the number of dolls they would see whenthe curtain was drawn aside, and were surprised when trickery meant those expectations were violated. In fact, they were more surprised to see the wrongnumber of dolls than the right number, but different-looking ones.
Some animals also seem able to perceive and understand small numbers. From the 1930s Otto Köhler, a German zoologist, trained ravens to open boxes withthe same number of dots on the lid as a card held by a researcher. One raven learnt to distinguish two, three, four, five and six dots. Rats can learnto ignore a certain number of doors in a maze before choosing which one to enter. Chimpanzees have been taught to match the numerals 1 to 6 to the numberof objects in a display and to find oranges hidden in two different places and point to the numeral that indicates their total number.
Even more strikingly, some wild animals appear to understand and use numerical facts without training. Karen McComb of the University of Sussex, in England,played a variety of recordings of lions roaring at night in the Serengeti National Park—different numbers of lions; their roars in sequence and overlapping;and so on. She wanted to test the theory that, since fights between lions are very costly, when lions heard large numbers of intruders’ roars they wouldwithdraw unless they were in superior numbers. The best explanation of what she observed was that lions estimated the number of intruders from the numberof different-sounding roars, compared that number to the number in their own group and then decided whether to attack or slink away.
That humans (and perhaps other animals) come ready-supplied with numbers contradicts two popular rival theories: the Platonic and the constructivist. Platothought numbers (and geometric objects such as circles) existed in some abstract, eternal and perfect realm, of which mortals were granted only an occasionalglimpse. Constructivists follow Jean Piaget, a Swiss child psychologist, in thinking that by moving things in the real world around and observing the resultspeople “construct” an understanding of number in the first few years of their lives. The distinction, though abstract, has practical relevance too. Could“maths-phobes” be born, rather than made? Can they be cured? And could mathematics be taught better to all?
Numbers on the brain
Brian Butterworth, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, has spent much of his career teasing out which bits of humans’ understandingof numbers are innate—and which learnt, and how. He thinks people are born with brain circuits that are dedicated to recognising and understanding thenumber of items in small collections. On this foundation an entire “number sense” is built, as children realise that bigger and bigger numbers can be reachedby adding “one more” and learn by experience how these bigger numbers behave.
His most recent work has confirmed that to develop a better understanding of numbers than that of a newborn baby, it is not necessary to be able to countwith words. He collaborated with some Australian researchers to test aboriginal children in the country’s Northern Territory who were monolingual speakersof one of two languages, Warlpiri and Anindilyakwa, in which the only number words are one, two, few and many. (Words for numbers have generally arisenwhen and where people grow crops or keep herds; hunter-gatherer bands, who have no herds or other stores of wealth, need not keep track of surpluses, orbalances of trade.)
Since the children were too old for the baby-staring trick, but unable to answer the question: “How many?”, researchers laid out counters, then put themaway and asked the children to “do as I did”. To check that they were using the number of the counters, rather than mimicking their pattern, the researchersbanged sticks together and asked them to “make the counters like the noises”. The children performed about as well as English-speaking aboriginal childrenliving in Melbourne.
Historically, one common method of counting has been to use body parts to keep track of a running total. The base-ten system used in modern arithmetic originateswith the fingers, and linguistic traces of that fact remain in the similarity of “five”, “finger” and “fist”, and the dual meaning of “digit”. Some thinkthat the original inhabitants of Europe were 20-counters who used fingers and toes—the use of “score” for both 20 and keeping count may be a remnant. Andthere remain tribal peoples who have elaborate methods using eyes, nostrils, elbows and so on.Illustration by Jon Berkley
Arithmetically, bases 12, 24 and 60 have their appeal (they have more factors than ten’s measly two). All three are still employed when telling the time,and 4,000 years ago the Babylonians used base 60 to do some pretty advanced mathematics. But fingers are particularly obvious and useful for keeping count.In another recent piece of work, Dr Butterworth and Robert Reeve of the University of Melbourne watched (English-speaking) five- and six-year-olds countingand doing simple sums. Most used their fingers, but around a quarter did not. Slightly more than half of the non-finger-counters were good arithmeticians,who presumably had outgrown needing to use their fingers. The others, who were decidedly weak, did not seem to have realised that their fingers could help.
More than 80 years ago Josef Gerstmann, an Austrian neurologist, described a set of problems that seem to arise simultaneously in people who have suffereddamage to the left parietal lobe of the brain: finding writing difficult or impossible, being unable to understand arithmetic or tell right from left,and having difficulty in identifying one’s fingers. There is still no agreement on whether these symptoms constitute a syndrome, but the bits of the brainused for storing facts about numbers and for representing the fingers are close to each other. Mental representations of numbers and of fingers may thereforebe functionally connected.
In 2005 Dr Butterworth and his colleagues asked people to perform tasks that required dexterity, and others that involved matching pairs of numbers, whilethe area of their parietal lobes known as the left angular gyrus was stimulated by a magnetic field. Dexterity and recall of facts involving numbers wereboth impaired. So the connection between numbers and fingers may be more profound than the handiness of fingers for keeping count.
Easy for some
If numbers had been invented by some prehistoric genius, then learning how to use them would be a matter of intelligence and practice. But what comes naturallyto most is lacking in a few. Just as some people are born colour-blind, or lose colour vision after a brain injury, others are “number-blind”: unable tocomprehend what everyone else sees effortlessly. That deficit may leave other abilities—including other mathematical abilities—unimpaired.
Dr Butterworth tells the story of Charles, a young man with lifelong mathematical difficulties. He could add two one-digit numbers only if he used his fingers.Sums involving two-digit numbers or multiplication or subtraction were beyond him. When shopping, he understood neither prices nor change. Tests showedhe was not merely maths-phobic. Not only was he far slower than the average, but the pattern of his results was strange.
In one test Charles was shown a pair of digits and asked to name the larger number. The bigger the gap, the faster most people can do this: they say “nine”faster when shown 9 and 2 than when shown 9 and 7. But with Charles, the reverse was the case—and the researchers could see why. Rather than telling theanswer directly, he was counting on from one number (on his fingers) until he got to the other, which meant he must have started at the smaller, or hegot to ten, in which case he must have started at the bigger. Most strikingly, he lacked the fundamental numerical ability possessed by most newborns:being able to tell the number of objects in a small group simply by looking. When asked how many dots were on a sheet of paper, he counted on his fingers—evenwhen there were only two.
Charles’s deficit, though severe, seemed to affect his numerical abilities alone. Numerical deficits in people of otherwise normal abilities can be evenmore striking in cases of brain damage. Lisa Cipolotti, a neuropsychologist, studied a Signora Gaddi, who used to run a hotel and keep its accounts. Aftera stroke she could find the number of things in a small group only by counting—when asked how many arms a crucifix had, she got Dr Cipolotti to hold outher arms so she could count them. Signora Gaddi’s problems seemed to affect only numbers. She could still read, speak and reason, remember historical andgeographical facts, and order objects by their physical size.
In fact, Signora Gaddi’s difficulties went even deeper than Charles’s. The stroke which damaged her innate understanding of small numbers also robbed herof the entire numerical edifice built on that foundation. For her, numbers stopped at four. When asked to count up from one, she got to four and no further.If there were more than four dots on a page she could not count them. She could not say how old she was or how many days were in a week, or even tell thetime.
“I hated maths at school”
From Barbie dolls programmed to say “math class is tough” to ministers of state who will parse and analyse a sentence but refuse to answer “what’s halfof three-quarters?”, maths-phobia is everywhere. One reason is that mathematics builds on itself, so that one missed step can lead to a lifetime of failure.Nor does it help that sums have unambiguously right and wrong answers, making it all too clear to schoolmates just what a child does and doesn’t know.But amidst the stragglers are those whose problem runs deeper than fear and loathing: the “dyscalculic”, as researchers have taken to calling those whosenumber sense is impaired. Numerical tests given to a representative sample of children in Havana suggest their proportion in the general population is3-6%.
Sceptics may feel this is a learning disability too far—another chance for middle-class parents to classify little Johnny as different, rather than thick.And perhaps dyscalculia will collect a penumbra of dubious cases around it, as dyslexia has. But perhaps not. Dyslexia manifests itself as a difficultywith a highly unnatural activity: reading. The best single predictor of dyscalculia, by contrast, is abnormal slowness in counting a few dots on a page,a task that most find trivially easy.
The researchers at University College have created a dyscalculia screener, which they think should be used to test all children early in life. With luck,diagnosis will progress to treatment: they are working on a remedial programme too. But even if dyscalculics never fully develop the sense of numbers theywere born without, their mathematical careers need not be over before they have started. There are entire fields of mathematics where numerical manipulationis peripheral: logic and geometry, for example. Dr Butterworth recalls an eminent geometrician (“I won’t say his name; it would embarrass him”) who approachedhim after he had given a talk on his research. “He said: ‘You know, I have always been dreadful at arithmetic.’ So I asked: ‘What’s seven eights?’ He justmumbled: ‘Oh, that’s trivial, there’s an algorithm for that,’ and walked away.”
Illustration by Jon Berkley
THE baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert. Twenty centimetres from her face researchers have placed a white cardwith two black spots on it. She stares at it intently. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced.As the cards alternate, her gaze starts to wander—until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns: she looks at it for twice as longas she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?
Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots preceding two, shows the same revival of interest when the numberof spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of household objects instead of dots (a comb,a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of items had an effect separate from changing the items themselves. Could it be the pattern that two thingsmake, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to rectangles moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three,or vice versa. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots perked up more when they then heard three drumbeats thanwhen they heard just two; likewise when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.
“One great blooming, buzzing confusion” was how William James, a 19th-century psychologist, described the way he thought the world looked to a newborn baby.But these experiments, and many others like them over the past few decades, have convinced researchers that, on the contrary, babies are born with manyways of making sense of what they see and hear. The trick is to use their love of novelty to work out what is happening inside their brains: when shownthe same things repeatedly, babies’ eyes wander; when the scene changes, their gaze returns. That makes visible what to them constitutes a change in theworld around them worthy of notice.
Dot and carry one
One of those ways of understanding the world is by number. People are born with an innate sense of how many items there are in small collections. Experimentsin which older children and adults are shown randomly arranged dots and asked to say quickly how many there are show this sense is retained throughoutlife. Up to three or four items, and the number is immediately visible without counting. Within a limited range, humans are born arithmeticians, too. Whenbabies a few months old were shown dolls placed and removed from behind a screen they had correct expectations of the number of dolls they would see whenthe curtain was drawn aside, and were surprised when trickery meant those expectations were violated. In fact, they were more surprised to see the wrongnumber of dolls than the right number, but different-looking ones.
Some animals also seem able to perceive and understand small numbers. From the 1930s Otto Köhler, a German zoologist, trained ravens to open boxes withthe same number of dots on the lid as a card held by a researcher. One raven learnt to distinguish two, three, four, five and six dots. Rats can learnto ignore a certain number of doors in a maze before choosing which one to enter. Chimpanzees have been taught to match the numerals 1 to 6 to the numberof objects in a display and to find oranges hidden in two different places and point to the numeral that indicates their total number.
Even more strikingly, some wild animals appear to understand and use numerical facts without training. Karen McComb of the University of Sussex, in England,played a variety of recordings of lions roaring at night in the Serengeti National Park—different numbers of lions; their roars in sequence and overlapping;and so on. She wanted to test the theory that, since fights between lions are very costly, when lions heard large numbers of intruders’ roars they wouldwithdraw unless they were in superior numbers. The best explanation of what she observed was that lions estimated the number of intruders from the numberof different-sounding roars, compared that number to the number in their own group and then decided whether to attack or slink away.
That humans (and perhaps other animals) come ready-supplied with numbers contradicts two popular rival theories: the Platonic and the constructivist. Platothought numbers (and geometric objects such as circles) existed in some abstract, eternal and perfect realm, of which mortals were granted only an occasionalglimpse. Constructivists follow Jean Piaget, a Swiss child psychologist, in thinking that by moving things in the real world around and observing the resultspeople “construct” an understanding of number in the first few years of their lives. The distinction, though abstract, has practical relevance too. Could“maths-phobes” be born, rather than made? Can they be cured? And could mathematics be taught better to all?
Numbers on the brain
Brian Butterworth, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, has spent much of his career teasing out which bits of humans’ understandingof numbers are innate—and which learnt, and how. He thinks people are born with brain circuits that are dedicated to recognising and understanding thenumber of items in small collections. On this foundation an entire “number sense” is built, as children realise that bigger and bigger numbers can be reachedby adding “one more” and learn by experience how these bigger numbers behave.
His most recent work has confirmed that to develop a better understanding of numbers than that of a newborn baby, it is not necessary to be able to countwith words. He collaborated with some Australian researchers to test aboriginal children in the country’s Northern Territory who were monolingual speakersof one of two languages, Warlpiri and Anindilyakwa, in which the only number words are one, two, few and many. (Words for numbers have generally arisenwhen and where people grow crops or keep herds; hunter-gatherer bands, who have no herds or other stores of wealth, need not keep track of surpluses, orbalances of trade.)
Since the children were too old for the baby-staring trick, but unable to answer the question: “How many?”, researchers laid out counters, then put themaway and asked the children to “do as I did”. To check that they were using the number of the counters, rather than mimicking their pattern, the researchersbanged sticks together and asked them to “make the counters like the noises”. The children performed about as well as English-speaking aboriginal childrenliving in Melbourne.
Historically, one common method of counting has been to use body parts to keep track of a running total. The base-ten system used in modern arithmetic originateswith the fingers, and linguistic traces of that fact remain in the similarity of “five”, “finger” and “fist”, and the dual meaning of “digit”. Some thinkthat the original inhabitants of Europe were 20-counters who used fingers and toes—the use of “score” for both 20 and keeping count may be a remnant. Andthere remain tribal peoples who have elaborate methods using eyes, nostrils, elbows and so on.Illustration by Jon Berkley
Arithmetically, bases 12, 24 and 60 have their appeal (they have more factors than ten’s measly two). All three are still employed when telling the time,and 4,000 years ago the Babylonians used base 60 to do some pretty advanced mathematics. But fingers are particularly obvious and useful for keeping count.In another recent piece of work, Dr Butterworth and Robert Reeve of the University of Melbourne watched (English-speaking) five- and six-year-olds countingand doing simple sums. Most used their fingers, but around a quarter did not. Slightly more than half of the non-finger-counters were good arithmeticians,who presumably had outgrown needing to use their fingers. The others, who were decidedly weak, did not seem to have realised that their fingers could help.
More than 80 years ago Josef Gerstmann, an Austrian neurologist, described a set of problems that seem to arise simultaneously in people who have suffereddamage to the left parietal lobe of the brain: finding writing difficult or impossible, being unable to understand arithmetic or tell right from left,and having difficulty in identifying one’s fingers. There is still no agreement on whether these symptoms constitute a syndrome, but the bits of the brainused for storing facts about numbers and for representing the fingers are close to each other. Mental representations of numbers and of fingers may thereforebe functionally connected.
In 2005 Dr Butterworth and his colleagues asked people to perform tasks that required dexterity, and others that involved matching pairs of numbers, whilethe area of their parietal lobes known as the left angular gyrus was stimulated by a magnetic field. Dexterity and recall of facts involving numbers wereboth impaired. So the connection between numbers and fingers may be more profound than the handiness of fingers for keeping count.
Easy for some
If numbers had been invented by some prehistoric genius, then learning how to use them would be a matter of intelligence and practice. But what comes naturallyto most is lacking in a few. Just as some people are born colour-blind, or lose colour vision after a brain injury, others are “number-blind”: unable tocomprehend what everyone else sees effortlessly. That deficit may leave other abilities—including other mathematical abilities—unimpaired.
Dr Butterworth tells the story of Charles, a young man with lifelong mathematical difficulties. He could add two one-digit numbers only if he used his fingers.Sums involving two-digit numbers or multiplication or subtraction were beyond him. When shopping, he understood neither prices nor change. Tests showedhe was not merely maths-phobic. Not only was he far slower than the average, but the pattern of his results was strange.
In one test Charles was shown a pair of digits and asked to name the larger number. The bigger the gap, the faster most people can do this: they say “nine”faster when shown 9 and 2 than when shown 9 and 7. But with Charles, the reverse was the case—and the researchers could see why. Rather than telling theanswer directly, he was counting on from one number (on his fingers) until he got to the other, which meant he must have started at the smaller, or hegot to ten, in which case he must have started at the bigger. Most strikingly, he lacked the fundamental numerical ability possessed by most newborns:being able to tell the number of objects in a small group simply by looking. When asked how many dots were on a sheet of paper, he counted on his fingers—evenwhen there were only two.
Charles’s deficit, though severe, seemed to affect his numerical abilities alone. Numerical deficits in people of otherwise normal abilities can be evenmore striking in cases of brain damage. Lisa Cipolotti, a neuropsychologist, studied a Signora Gaddi, who used to run a hotel and keep its accounts. Aftera stroke she could find the number of things in a small group only by counting—when asked how many arms a crucifix had, she got Dr Cipolotti to hold outher arms so she could count them. Signora Gaddi’s problems seemed to affect only numbers. She could still read, speak and reason, remember historical andgeographical facts, and order objects by their physical size.
In fact, Signora Gaddi’s difficulties went even deeper than Charles’s. The stroke which damaged her innate understanding of small numbers also robbed herof the entire numerical edifice built on that foundation. For her, numbers stopped at four. When asked to count up from one, she got to four and no further.If there were more than four dots on a page she could not count them. She could not say how old she was or how many days were in a week, or even tell thetime.
“I hated maths at school”
From Barbie dolls programmed to say “math class is tough” to ministers of state who will parse and analyse a sentence but refuse to answer “what’s halfof three-quarters?”, maths-phobia is everywhere. One reason is that mathematics builds on itself, so that one missed step can lead to a lifetime of failure.Nor does it help that sums have unambiguously right and wrong answers, making it all too clear to schoolmates just what a child does and doesn’t know.But amidst the stragglers are those whose problem runs deeper than fear and loathing: the “dyscalculic”, as researchers have taken to calling those whosenumber sense is impaired. Numerical tests given to a representative sample of children in Havana suggest their proportion in the general population is3-6%.
Sceptics may feel this is a learning disability too far—another chance for middle-class parents to classify little Johnny as different, rather than thick.And perhaps dyscalculia will collect a penumbra of dubious cases around it, as dyslexia has. But perhaps not. Dyslexia manifests itself as a difficultywith a highly unnatural activity: reading. The best single predictor of dyscalculia, by contrast, is abnormal slowness in counting a few dots on a page,a task that most find trivially easy.
The researchers at University College have created a dyscalculia screener, which they think should be used to test all children early in life. With luck,diagnosis will progress to treatment: they are working on a remedial programme too. But even if dyscalculics never fully develop the sense of numbers theywere born without, their mathematical careers need not be over before they have started. There are entire fields of mathematics where numerical manipulationis peripheral: logic and geometry, for example. Dr Butterworth recalls an eminent geometrician (“I won’t say his name; it would embarrass him”) who approachedhim after he had given a talk on his research. “He said: ‘You know, I have always been dreadful at arithmetic.’ So I asked: ‘What’s seven eights?’ He justmumbled: ‘Oh, that’s trivial, there’s an algorithm for that,’ and walked away.”
Harold Pinter 30th 2008 From The Economist
Harold Pinter, playwright and polemicist, died on December 24th, aged 78
Rex Features
NOTHING in Harold Pinter’s life explained the rage in him. A happy lower-middle-class childhood in an “immaculate house” in east London, the cherished onlyson of a Jewish tailor. Enjoyable years at Hackney Grammar, with an English teacher who inspired him. Batting, bowling, fielding slip, and all the lifelongjoys of cricket. A close and loyal group of Hackney friends, whose friendship lasted. A decade acting in repertory up and down the country (sinister rolespreferred), while delivering milk or clearing snow to bring in money. A rocky first marriage, with a seven-year affair, but a good, doting, purringly contentedsecond one to Lady Antonia Fraser, the daughter of an earl. A cataclysmic start in playwriting with “The Birthday Party” in 1958, which was panned andran a week in London, but then redemption and fame with “The Caretaker” two years later. Accolades, lionising, two dozen more plays, two dozen acclaimedscreenplays (“Sleuth”, “The Go-Between”, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”) and, in 2005, the Nobel prize for literature.
Laurels to rest on indeed. Yet this was also the man who last September appeared at Bolivar Hall in central London, paper-frail from cancer, needing thehelp of two sticks and three friends to get to the stage, and then thundered out in a furious bellow his “Reflection on the Gulf War”:Hallelujah!It works.We blew the shit out of them.We blew the shit right back up their own assAnd out their fucking ears.Click here
Because he could be charming company, he and Lady Antonia were fixtures on the literary cocktail circuit. But he seldom cut a comfortable or happy figure.Instead he would stand beside her like a metaphor for silence and death, his black polo-neck pulled up ruthlessly to his big, baleful, staring head. LikeStanley in “The Birthday Party”, caught up in a game of blind man’s buff that turns very nasty, he seemed to expect at any moment the shadows to move in,knee him in the groin, break his glasses. Except that, unlike Stanley, he would roar back and punch them senseless. He would never let them tell him whatto do.
His playwriting life, he said, was much like that. His characters rose up randomly (from the mere word “dark”, the question “What have you done with thescissors?”, an image of a couple by a window in Kilburn) and then began to play taunting games with him. They resisted him, went their own way. There wasno true or false in them. No certainty, no verifiable past. Truths, he found as he wrote drama, “challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflecteach other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other.”
Accordingly, in his plays, questions went unanswered. Remarks were not risen to. A “what do you mean?” signalled the demolition of conversation. In “Betrayal”(1978), based on his own affair, two former lovers tiptoe round each other:Emma: Ever think of me?Jerry: I don’t need to think of you.Emma: Oh?Jerry: I don’t need to think of you. Anyway I’m all right.Pause.How are you?Emma: Fine, really. All right.
In Beckett, a strong influence on Mr Pinter in his beginnings, ordinary conversations would turn metaphysical. His own were packed with menace. Words wereoffensive, defensive, barriers, knives, stones, a “stratagem” or a “mocking smoke screen”, as he put it, to cover nakedness. Underneath them, somethingelse was being said. Truth was being smothered. He had felt it himself: the suffocation of drama school (abandoned after two terms), or National Service(doggedly resisted, and the fine paid, in 1949), or the bourgeois smugness of the London theatre scene in the late 1950s, which he had tried to explode.Like him, his characters often suddenly made for the window, desperate for air.
Or they fell silent. Silence, applied almost musically and poetically, let the dark in. Or the unsaid.Silence.A drip sounds in the bucket. They all look up.Silence.Mick: You still got that leak.Aston: Yes.Pause.
Mr Pinter’s characters were often would-be homebuilders. They remembered the comforts of hot milk and hotwater bottles, dreamed of kitchens with matchingworktops and lino tiles, dwelt longingly on casseroles and fried bread. But nothing could bridge the void or make it cosy. The theme Mr Pinter lived withand raged against was human alienation.
It was his own, as much as anyone’s. Despite the contentments of his life he felt exposed to all the winds, naked and shelterless. Only lies would protecthim, and as a writer he refused to lie. That was politicians’ work, criminal Bush or supine Blair, or the work of his critics, who could go and fuck themselves.
But he also left them a more surprising instruction. It came from “No Man’s Land”, though it was also reminiscent of Ruth, restored to happiness of a sort,lightly touching Joey’s head at the end of “The Homecoming”: “Tender the dead as you would yourself be tendered, now, in what you would describe as yourlife.”
Rex Features
NOTHING in Harold Pinter’s life explained the rage in him. A happy lower-middle-class childhood in an “immaculate house” in east London, the cherished onlyson of a Jewish tailor. Enjoyable years at Hackney Grammar, with an English teacher who inspired him. Batting, bowling, fielding slip, and all the lifelongjoys of cricket. A close and loyal group of Hackney friends, whose friendship lasted. A decade acting in repertory up and down the country (sinister rolespreferred), while delivering milk or clearing snow to bring in money. A rocky first marriage, with a seven-year affair, but a good, doting, purringly contentedsecond one to Lady Antonia Fraser, the daughter of an earl. A cataclysmic start in playwriting with “The Birthday Party” in 1958, which was panned andran a week in London, but then redemption and fame with “The Caretaker” two years later. Accolades, lionising, two dozen more plays, two dozen acclaimedscreenplays (“Sleuth”, “The Go-Between”, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”) and, in 2005, the Nobel prize for literature.
Laurels to rest on indeed. Yet this was also the man who last September appeared at Bolivar Hall in central London, paper-frail from cancer, needing thehelp of two sticks and three friends to get to the stage, and then thundered out in a furious bellow his “Reflection on the Gulf War”:Hallelujah!It works.We blew the shit out of them.We blew the shit right back up their own assAnd out their fucking ears.Click here
Because he could be charming company, he and Lady Antonia were fixtures on the literary cocktail circuit. But he seldom cut a comfortable or happy figure.Instead he would stand beside her like a metaphor for silence and death, his black polo-neck pulled up ruthlessly to his big, baleful, staring head. LikeStanley in “The Birthday Party”, caught up in a game of blind man’s buff that turns very nasty, he seemed to expect at any moment the shadows to move in,knee him in the groin, break his glasses. Except that, unlike Stanley, he would roar back and punch them senseless. He would never let them tell him whatto do.
His playwriting life, he said, was much like that. His characters rose up randomly (from the mere word “dark”, the question “What have you done with thescissors?”, an image of a couple by a window in Kilburn) and then began to play taunting games with him. They resisted him, went their own way. There wasno true or false in them. No certainty, no verifiable past. Truths, he found as he wrote drama, “challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflecteach other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other.”
Accordingly, in his plays, questions went unanswered. Remarks were not risen to. A “what do you mean?” signalled the demolition of conversation. In “Betrayal”(1978), based on his own affair, two former lovers tiptoe round each other:Emma: Ever think of me?Jerry: I don’t need to think of you.Emma: Oh?Jerry: I don’t need to think of you. Anyway I’m all right.Pause.How are you?Emma: Fine, really. All right.
In Beckett, a strong influence on Mr Pinter in his beginnings, ordinary conversations would turn metaphysical. His own were packed with menace. Words wereoffensive, defensive, barriers, knives, stones, a “stratagem” or a “mocking smoke screen”, as he put it, to cover nakedness. Underneath them, somethingelse was being said. Truth was being smothered. He had felt it himself: the suffocation of drama school (abandoned after two terms), or National Service(doggedly resisted, and the fine paid, in 1949), or the bourgeois smugness of the London theatre scene in the late 1950s, which he had tried to explode.Like him, his characters often suddenly made for the window, desperate for air.
Or they fell silent. Silence, applied almost musically and poetically, let the dark in. Or the unsaid.Silence.A drip sounds in the bucket. They all look up.Silence.Mick: You still got that leak.Aston: Yes.Pause.
Mr Pinter’s characters were often would-be homebuilders. They remembered the comforts of hot milk and hotwater bottles, dreamed of kitchens with matchingworktops and lino tiles, dwelt longingly on casseroles and fried bread. But nothing could bridge the void or make it cosy. The theme Mr Pinter lived withand raged against was human alienation.
It was his own, as much as anyone’s. Despite the contentments of his life he felt exposed to all the winds, naked and shelterless. Only lies would protecthim, and as a writer he refused to lie. That was politicians’ work, criminal Bush or supine Blair, or the work of his critics, who could go and fuck themselves.
But he also left them a more surprising instruction. It came from “No Man’s Land”, though it was also reminiscent of Ruth, restored to happiness of a sort,lightly touching Joey’s head at the end of “The Homecoming”: “Tender the dead as you would yourself be tendered, now, in what you would describe as yourlife.”
Friday, 2 January 2009
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