Dangerousness Index for Ecuadorian Persons Deprived of Liberty: A Multidimensional Social Indicator Using CATPCA and K-Means
Description
This dataset contains the data and supporting documentation used in the study “Dangerousness Index for Ecuadorian Persons Deprived of Liberty: A Multidimensional Social Indicator Using CATPCA and K-Means.” The research is based on de-identified secondary data from the 2022 Ecuadorian Penitentiary Census, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses of Ecuador (INEC). The repository includes the original working database and codebook, the selected and transformed analytical variables, variable definitions and coding schemes, the statistical procedures used to perform categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA), index normalization and K-means classification, as well as the principal analytical outputs. It also contains the official census questionnaire and methodological documentation required to understand the source, structure and processing of the data. The final analytical dataset comprises 31,273 valid records and 52 selected variables covering sociodemographic characteristics, legal and penal trajectory, previous institutional contact, prison living conditions, access to services, programme participation and social-support factors. CATPCA was used to quantify categorical variables and construct a normalized institutional risk indicator ranging from 0 to 1. K-means clustering was subsequently applied to classify the observations into five ordered levels: very low, low, moderate, high and very high. These materials are provided to facilitate transparency, verification and reproducibility of the data-processing and statistical-analysis procedures. The resulting indicator is intended as a descriptive and institutional-management support measure. It should not be interpreted as a deterministic prediction of future violence, recidivism or individual dangerousness, nor should it replace professional and individualized assessment.