The author presents a comprehensive study on the prevalence, presentation, and motivation of the "ultimate coercive sanction": capital punishment, or the "death penalty". He begins by examining capital punishment across all 53 cultures for which data was present in the Probability Sample Files, and finds that capital punishment is overwhelmingly present. After discerning some general trends, the author examines how capital punishment presents itself across different kinds of political systems, and uses the results to voice support for various theories on why the capital punishment is practiced. The study concludes by stating that the capital punishment may be something that human society may never be truly rid of, but greater societal stability may be able to reduce its prevalence.

This paper seeks to understand how the conflict resolution strategies of indigenous and non-indigenous groups differ in their efficacy. The authors suggest that indigenous methods of conflict resolution are more effective than non-indigenous methods by demonstrating that subjects from the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) associated with indigenous conflict management (ICM) will co-occur less frequently with OCM terms related to conflict than subjects related to non-ICM. They tested this by selecting OCM subjects that they felt best represented ICM, non-ICM, and instances of conflict and using chi-square tests to show how often these subjects co-occurred. They subsequently split up the "conflict" variable into four forms of conflict in order to show whether any of these forms might be more frequently found associated with ICM or non-ICM subjects. The results showed that conflict subjects were more likely to co-occur with non-ICM subjects, and that sociocultural/interpersonal conflicts were more likely to be associated with ICM subjects, whereas political conflicts were more likely to be associated with non-ICM subjects.

This study explores the relationship between level of legal evolution (measured on a Guttman scale that ranges from just mediation to counsel, police, and mediation) and level of societal complexity. Results suggest a significant association between level of legal evolution and level of societal complexity.

An early cross-cultural study that sought to establish correlations between "stages" of economic culture and a variety of different social and political institutions, such as form of government and justice, marriage and kinship, and behaviors during warfare.

Using principal-components analysis, the author develops an Index of Sociocultural Development that measures the same concepts as Carneiro’s Index of Cultural Accumulation. Carneiro’s index also contains a measure of cultural elaboration which the author suggests examining further.

Feuding and other responses to malfeasance are examined cross-culturally. The geographic distribution of responses are presented and odds ratios/logistic regression models are employed in analyzing the effect of socio-economic, historical and ecological variables on responses to malfeasance. Codes are included.

This paper adds to a body of research which analyzes the persistence of institutional features in societies over time by testing for association between local democracy (succession by consensus among preindustrial groups) and various measures of democracy in contemporary societies. The researchers conclude that beliefs and values which perceive democracy as a viable political structure may be an important mediating mechanism in producing and maintaining democratic instututions over time.

In this article, the authors explore cultural variables that they propose contribute to the maintenance of peace in non-warring societies. These variables are compared in 16 peaceful systems (as coded by the authors from anthropological and historical data) and in 30 warring societies taken from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS). Findings associate more peaceful cultures with peace systems, and non-peaceful cultures with warring societies.

Textor encapsulates cross-cultural findings on marital residence relating to cultural, environmental, psychological, and social phenomena.

"In an earlier study of the evolution of elements of legal organization, a Guttman scale was developed having as scale steps (elements of legal organization) counsel, police, and mediation. In this study, one further step, that of courts, is discussed, and a new Guttman scale for legal evolution presented."